First published 1991
Alfred Armiger has transformed a beautiful Tudor house into The Jolly Barmaid, the newest link in his roadhouse empire. His clever but crude touch has remade the historic building into something profitable and garish. Then Armiger himself becomes the victim. Someone beats him to death with brutal force. Detective Sergeant George Felse arrives to find no shortage of suspects who wanted Armiger gone. The evidence proves sparse, but Felse works through the possibilities and makes his arrest. His sixteen-year-old son Dominic sees things differently. The boy believes completely in Kitty Norris, the woman his father suspects. To Dominic, Kitty embodies everything good and worthy in the world. His faith in her innocence pushes him to act against his father's investigation. The teenager chooses a path that puts him face to face with consequences he never anticipated.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
256 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Futura