BETRAYAL IN THE COTSWOLDS

A handsome if slightly shabby stone house in Upper Oddington is home to Umberto Kingly as well as his three dogs and will be Thea Slocombe's latest house-sitting assignment. She expects the location will be one of her quietest, until the serene atmosphere is shattered by a fatal hit-and-run. The ensuing police investigation plunges Thea deep into the victim's complicated family dynamics, and the rift that had already torn it apart, but she cannot help wondering if the reverberations of scandal have led to a deliberate and murderous assault. 'As Tope tells it, every rural idyll is blighted by underlying menace...' - Daily Mail. 349pp, paperback.