Pollard and Toye

Shockwaves are sent through the sleepy village of Trill when a woman’s body is discovered in a local school. Beatrice Baynes - interfering, overbearing and spiteful - was not well liked. But no one expects a body to be found on their doorstep.... And how did the annual festival at Meldon School turn from a lighthearted celebration to a gruesome crime scene? With the local constabulary completely stumped, Scotland Yard’s Chief Detective Inspector Pollard and Detective Sergeant Toye are called in to investigate.

When a body washes up at the banks of the river in Affacombe village, the residents are thrown into disarray. It turns out to be the quiet and solitary matron at the local school: Sister Roach. But when the police start to investigate it appears Roach’s unassuming demeanour hid a much darker secret. With rumours of blackmail and clandestine affairs, it becomes clear that more than one person may have wanted Roach dead. Chief Detective Inspector Pollard and Detective Sergeant Toye are called in from Scotland Yard to crack the case.

The peace of the English countryside is shattered one August morning by the discovery of a skeleton in the boot of a dumped car. A murder has been uncovered, and when detectives Pollard and Toye arrive on the scene they discover that this hamlet buried deep in the country is not so calm a place as it first appears. The inhabitants of the secluded village of Twiggadon are reluctant to air their individual secrets and offer the investigators little help.