The Sting of Death: Secrets and lies in a sinister countryside (West Country Mysteries) by Rebecca Tope
Rebecca Tope . Unknown Year . English
One glorious summer's afternoon, Karen Slocombe is visited by her cousin Penn, who unexpectedly asks for husband Drew's help in tracking down a missing relative, Justine. But why has Penn come to him, and why is she reluctant to get the police involved? Justine's mother, Roma Millan, an avid beekeeper, is not interested in the whereabouts of her daughter, but husband Laurie senses a troubled history between mother and daughter. Detective Den Cooper joins Drew as the case takes a sinister turn when it is discovered that a small child is also missing. But can the tangle of secrets and lies be unravelled before somebody gets hurt?
Categories: Literary Fiction
About the Author
Rebecca grew up on farms in the 1950s and 60s, and then went to Swansea University, where she did a BA in English and Philosophy. She had poems and short stories published in small magazines from that time on, but it was only after marrying, producing four children and working at a succession of part-time jobs that she got published with her first crime novel, A DIRTY DEATH. This book is based on childhood memories of farming life. The thrill of publication was slightly marred by the fact that the cow on the cover was a Friesian and not a Jersey. Rebecca still worries that people think she can't tell the difference... The part-time jobs include freelance indexing and proofreading for London publishers; running antenatal classes for the NCT; counselling couples for Relate; and being the office girl for an undertaker. These were followed by several years as a milk recorder, involving cold dawn visits to mucky farms and working with the wide variety of herdsmen in charge. This experience features prominently in A DEATH TO RECORD. She currently writes two distinct crime series - set in the Cotswolds, and the Lake District. She also has historicasl fiction available as ebooks only.
