In the fourteenth novel in the British mystery series from the Silver Dagger award-winning author Dorothy Simpson, “a modern-day version of Agatha Christie” (Booklist), Inspector Luke Thanet has a both murder and a wedding on his hands. Newspaper reporter Jessica Manifest’s questionable death takes Inspector Luke Thanet away from his daughter’s wedding preparations to investigate the victim’s supposedly accidental death. As he delves into her secretive past, he realizes that there are many people with motives for murdering her. “Thanet's investigation proceeds with satisfying depth…Simpson tailors her plot with skill and care, nicely dovetailing all the clues and reserving a special twist for the end” (Library Journal).

As Old Flo sat there, watching and listening, she became easily convinced of several important observations. The first was that her daughter-in-law seemed uncharacteristically distracted, even remote, from the events around her. Secondly, she understood with complete clarity that her own son was infatuated with the pretty little thing sitting opposite. She could see the longing in his eyes and trace it through every behavioural tick on show. She felt sure that the others, including the girl herself, must surely have registered such transparency, and she wondered what fireworks lay ahead. Another intriguing factor was the big blonde lad who sat there, apparently comfortable and confi dent, and yet in some way preoccupied. Something there required further investigation. Flo just couldn't see why the man's attractive wife would ever fi nd anything worth straying for in her own son's rather tawdry realm. Time would tell, but she knew her son wanted that girl.Spanning a generation, this mystery thriller moves between the City of London and Cape Town, rural Kent and the hills of Girona in north-eastern Spain, weaving a tale of lust and deception, romance and retribution.

Matt Dawson becomes involved in an Arizona caper

A sample of poems, songs, rap and short quotes from a larger collection of work. Each one is introduced with a short story about the author and the inspiration behind the poem that follows.