Lambert and Hook

Lydon Hall is a house full of character, as the estate agent's literature claims. But its many interesting features should surely not include a corpse in the elegant drawing-room? Is this death the suicide it appears to be? The investigation centres upon a tight-knit village community. Both the glamorous French widow of the deceased and the man who lives rough on the moor after a mental breakdown seem to know more about this death than is at first apparent.

When Liz Upson reports that her husband, Matthew, has gone missing, he’s not exactly top priority for Detective Sergeant Bert Hook - he’s just one of thousands of missing persons reported each year. Anyway, Mrs Upson makes it clear that her husband may be missing, but he’s not missed. But when his body turns up with a bullet in the head in the Malvern Hills, Hook and his superintendent, John Lambert, have a formidable and complex case on their hands.

Gurney Close isn’t the sort of place where anything untoward should happen. It’s just a small, newly-built cul-de-sac with three nice houses and a bungalow overlooking the river Wye. The people who move in – three married couples and a divorcee – don’t expect much excitement beyond some neighbourhood friendliness. With this in mind, they organise a party to celebrate moving in. Everything goes well and a good time is had by all – until one of them is found dead the next morning.

Cajoled into auditioning for a local play by the formidable Mrs Dalrymple, Bert Hook finds that amateur dramatics are not quite as he imagined. He meets a rather surprising cast of characters: moody Michael Carey, a talented actor with a big future ahead of him; shoplifter Becky Clegg, who claims she has put her disreputable past behind her; and Jack Dawes, with a history of violent crime.