It's a stormy dark night in the quaint English town of Oldminister when local gallery owner Louis Gillette is discovered dead in his office. Gillette seems to have been bludgeoned to death, the safe nearby open and empty of all contents - possibly the result of a burglary? But all is not as it seems. Very soon, it comes to light that Gillette was in fact poisoned first. Someone then beat his unconscious body. Were both these crimes committed by the same person? And more importantly, why? It soon becomes apparent that Gillette was an unpopular man, infamous in the area for his greed and nastiness - the suspects for his murder are many. Could it have been his beautiful but unfaithful wife Lydia? Or possibly Gillette's best friend Jack, charming but in possession of a dark secret he would do anything to keep from Gillette . . . Rival businessman Manfred Tauber also stands to gain a great deal with Gillette gone. Even the victim's own father-in-law, a millionaire himself with a great deal of influence, couldn't stand him. Detectives French and Edwards are once more on the case. But with so many suspects to sort through, each telling a lie to deflect suspicion, how will they ever reach the truth?

Norman is an established novelist and academic writer, an MA of Jesus College, Oxford, and a PhD of Birkbeck College, University of London. An English specialist, he taught English for many years in a Liverpool comprehensive school before becoming a full-time writer. Norman has had over twenty novels published. He is a recognised authority on Victorian finance and its reflections in the 19th century novel, and his book on the subject, The Novelist and Mammon, was published by the Oxford University Press. Norman has also had three academic books of Roman Catholic interest published.