Part of Dalziel & Pascoe, book 15
First published 1997
Police inspector Peter Pascoe searches for a place to scatter his grandmother's ashes when he discovers a family secret. His ancestor was wrongly executed during wartime. The revelation consumes Pascoe's attention just as chaos erupts in his department. Eight female animal rights activists have dug up human bones at a pharmaceutical company's research facility. Yorkshire police superintendent Andrew Dalziel becomes smitten with one of the protesters, a well-built woman named Cap Marvell. As Dalziel pursues romance, the investigation into the unidentified remains intersects with Pascoe's family mystery and a dangerous pharmaceutical research project. The Yorkshire woods begin revealing their buried secrets. Animal instincts clash with human desires as a deadly conspiracy emerges. The conspiracy has already claimed one life and threatens to kill again. Pascoe must confront his family's shameful past while solving a modern murder that connects to corporate corruption and activist fury.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, family-secrets, investigative-journalism
Setting: Yorkshire
Period: Wartime
439 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Dell