Endangering Innocents by
Priscilla Masters
pbk out February 04
(Allison Busby)
at £6.99
Relationships with children are at the heart of the seventh novel featuring DI Joanna
Piercy. At the start of the book, when she attends a family christening, she is firm in
the view that she doesn't want to start a family of her own. But her attitudes come
under pressure as the story develops. Meanwhile, a man called Josh Baldwin is
watching the small children at a school in the village of Horton. He takes a special
interest in a troubled little girl called Madeleine. But when the girl goes missing,
Baldwin becomes the prime suspect.
The setting is rural Staffordshire at the time of the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, a
time when 'the Prime Minister was busily delivering pre-election speeches assuring
his voters that the countryside was open for business.' As the bleak resolution to
Masters' story, in which the disease plays a part, illustrates, that was far from the
truth. This is a moving story, probably the darkest so far from the pen of this writer,
and it is likely to stay in the memory of those who read it for a long time.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Endangering Innocents by
Priscilla Masters
