When irascible farmer Guy Beardon meets a very dirty death in his own farmyard, at first it seems like an accident – despite the fact that he was widely disliked. Only his daughter suspects foul play. Suspicion becomes certainty when two more deaths occur – and both of them are unmistakably murder…

It had already been a spring laden with mortality. News reports were full of terrorist bombings, earthquakes and floods, and a whole herd of prime beef animals had been wasted on the altar of BSE-phobia. So it was with a strange momentary lack of surprise that Lilah found her father, early that morning, half-submerged face down in the slurry pit.

The difficulty lies in discovering who, among Guy’s many enemies, hated him enough to want him dead – and who went on killing to conceal the truth. Could it be the vicar, secretly intrigued by the evil that men do? The best friend of Guy’s wife Miranda? The crusty wing commander – or the too-good-to-be-true freelance computer whizz? There is certainly no shortage of suspects. Even the ubiquitous Hetty Taplow, the village gossip, appears to know more than she’ll admit…

REBECCA TOPE is the author of fifteen previous crime novels. She lives on a smallholding in Herefordshire, with a full complement of livestock, but manages to travel the world and enjoy civilization from time to time as well. Most of her varied experiences and activities find their way into her books, sooner or later; for example, bee keeping, milk recording, spinning, arguing, undertaking and gardening. She is also currently the membership secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association.