Scaring Crows by
Priscilla Masters
hbk out February 99
Published by Macmillan
at £16.99
On Tuesday July 7th Dave Shackleton arrives in his milk tanker at Hardacre Farm at 6.58 a.m., to make his penultimate collection of the morning. But something is wrong. The cows are out of their field and milling around, anxious to be milked, and neither the farmer, Aaron Summers, nor his son Jack are to be seen, Dave finds their bodies in the kitchen of the farmhouse, both killed by someone who has used their own shotgun. The third member of the family, Jack's sister Ruthie, is missing.
So begins a most difficult case for DI Joanna Piercy. There seems to be no motive for the killings, but there is no shortage of suspects. Dave Shackleton, the finder of the bodies, is in the frame. He is in love with Ruthie and would like to marry her and take over the farm. Titus Mothershaw is an artist who rents a cottage on the Summers' land and carves bizarre shapes out of trees. Joanna suspects that he knows more about Ruthie than he is prepared to admit Neil Rowan owns a neighbouring farm which caters for holiday guests. He is a known philanderer and Ruthie has been working part-time at the Rowans' farm to help the Summers' straitened finances. Lewis Stone is an unemployed loner given to taking long walks with his alsation dog. He was near the farm on the day of the murder, but did not come forward in response to a police appeal for witnesses. Martin Pinkers is the owner of the next farm, a furtive weasel of a man, he is suspected of rustling the Summers' prize bull, Doric, which has disappeared, as have some cows. Hannah Lockley, Ruthie's aunt, lives in a nearby cottage. She is devoted to the girl and is an unlikely suspect.
The key to the murders, Joanna thinks, is Ruthie, but where is she? Joanna and her sergeant, Mike Korpanski, have very little to go on, but they painstakingly follow what few leads they have and eventually track Ruthie down. The development of the plot and the unravelling of the mystery are entirely convincing. Joanna and Mike are a very attractive pair. This seems to me one of the best of the Piercy investigations.
Scaring Crows by
Priscilla Masters