From the prize-winning author of Richard and Judy Book Club novel, The American Boy, this is the third in the acclaimed Lydmouth crime series, set on the Welsh/English border in the confusing years after the Second World War.

'Andrew Taylor is a master story-teller' Daily Telegraph

From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the third instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series


After the coldest night of the year, they find the man's body. He is dangling from the Hanging Tree on the outskirts of a village near Lydmouth, with his trousers round his ankles. Is it suicide, murder, or accidental death resulting from some bizarre sexual practice?

Journalist Jill Francis and Detective Inspector Thornhill become involved in the case in separate ways. Jill is also drawn unwillingly into the affairs of the small public school where the dead man taught. Meanwhile a Peeping Tom is preying upon Lydmouth; Jill has just moved into her own house and is afraid she is being watched. And there are more distractions, on a personal level, for policeman and reporter . . .

'An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling' The Times

'The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today' Val McDermid

'There is no denying Taylor's talent, his prose exudes a quality uncommon among his contemporaries' Time Out

"Taylor's Lydmouth series is turning the classical detective story into a complex picture of our own past" - Independent

"Andrew Taylor is one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting novelist writing on crime in England today" - Spectator

"The people depicted here are real and believable and the drabness and genteel facade of Fifties England is skilfully brought to life. Taylor is, as always, adept at showing the reality beneath the surface" - Sunday Telegraph

"How skilfully he recreates the atmosphere of the time through innuendo, attitude and detail . . .Taylor is the master of small lives writ large and he has carved a classic detective story" - Frances Fyfield

"The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today" - Val McDermid