Product Description

When Meredith Mitchell spots a hitchhiker on a lonely road outside Bamford one evening, she feels obliged to give her a lift. But Mitchell drops off her passenger feeling distinctly uneasy. Though pleasant enough, and despite her apparent self-confidence, the girl seems highly secretive. And what business can she have at Tudor Lodge, the beautiful old home of Brussels-based lawyer Andrew Penhallow?

Penhallow is constantly coming and going from the European mainland, but that night he is at home, and--with his son away and his wife in bed with a migraine--alone. The next morning he is found murdered in the garden.

His death results in some spectacular revelations about a double life involving his mysterious visitor, Kate Drago. Might their meeting have escalated into a murderous fury? But Kate is not the only suspect. What about Harry Sawyer, owner of a nearby garage, who had a long-running dispute with Penhallow over land? Does the ne'er-do-well Joss family have anything to do with the killing? And what role does Kate's solicitor and friend, Freddie Green, play, arriving hotfoot from London to stake his client's claim to Penhallow's considerable estate?

Superintendent Alan Markby investigates the ghosts of Penhallow's past as well as the secrets of the present. But when his colleague, Sergeant Prescott, inconveniently falls in love with the main suspect, Markby can rely only on his girlfriend, Meredith, to help him solve the case.

This highly enjoyable crime novel is the eleventh to feature the appealing Cotswold sleuths, and displays all Ann Granger's skill with place, plot, and character.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3450626 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 8
• Binding: Audio Cassette

From Publishers Weekly
In her 11th mystery (after A Word After Dying) featuring British sleuthing duo Meredith Mitchell and her policeman lover, Alan Markby, Granger once again delivers a polished whodunit. A striking young woman hitchhikes her way to Bamford from London, and Mitchell gives her a lift to her destination: Tudor Lodge, the home of lawyer and European Union "mandarin" Andrew Penhallow. While his wife, Carla, is upstairs with a migraine, Penhallow confronts his unwelcome visitor, Kate Drago, alone. After stowing the young hitchhiker in a nearby seedy hotel, Penhallow returns home. Later that night, a knock at the back door brings Penhallow outside, where he is viciously attacked and murdered. Markby, who went to school with Penhallow, is called to the scene, and the investigation begins. Was Penhallow the victim of a terrorist attack? Or did Drago murder him? What is the young woman's connection with the victim and his family? Granger offers only a small cast of possible suspects, but manages to sustain the suspense of Mitchell's and Markby's investigation until the novel's tidy and believable conclusion.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The morning after foreign service officer Meredith Mitchell drops a hitchhiker at a manor house outside Bamford, its owner is found murdered. Lover Alan Markby, detective, gets the case. More solid work for series fans.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Driving home one evening, Foreign Service worker Meredith Mitchell, longtime girlfriend of Bamford's Superintendent of Police Alan Markby (A Word After Dying, 1998, etc.), picks up a feisty young woman hitchhiker, dropping her, as requested, near Tudor Lodge, home of Carla and Andrew Penhallow and their son Luke. Penhallow is someone of importance in the European Uniona job that takes him abroad for months at a time, allowing him a second, secret family in Cornwall: his mistress, a painter with a small gallery, who died of cancer some time ago and his daughter Kate, the hitchhiker, whos now turned up on his doorstep. While wife Carla sleeps upstairs, suffering from a violent migraine, Kate confronts Penhallow with bitter accusations of neglect, even as she hopes for acknowledgment and a place in this family. He eventually takes Kate to a hotel and returns home, only to be found by Carla the next morning on the back lawnbludgeoned to death. Now starts the tedious business of questioning Kate (who promptly calls a lawyer friend) tracking down witnesses, and testing alibis until Markby has an inspired moment that leads him to a surprising killer. An intriguing start that bogs down midway, revives toward the finish, but gets no help at all from Alan and Merediths tepid affair. Still, warm and lively vignettes of an assortment of local characters will be a big plus for fans of the village scene. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Superb Cotswold police procedural
While driving home, Meredith Mitchell picks up a hitchhiker whom she drops off near the home of European VIP Andrew Penhallow and his family. Meredith soon enjoys the comfort of being with her lover, police superintendent Alan Markby. The next day, Andrew's wife finds her spouse murdered. Suspicion immediately falls on the hitchhiker.

Alan conducts an official investigation while Meredith makes her own inquiries. Apparently, the much traveled Andrew had two families with the hitchhiker being his neglected daughter from the other side of the tracks. However, were Kate's feelings strong enough to murder her father? Alan leans in that direction, but Meredith thinks otherwise and plans to sell her lover with a different scenario.

CALL THE DEAD AGAIN, the eleventh Cotswold novel, is an interesting British police procedural that, like its predecessors, adds elements of an amateur sleuth to the tale. The story line moves rather quickly, only slowing down when Alan and Meredith are doing anything except sleuthing. The characters are warm and cozy. Of major interest is the victim, who dies in the first quarter of the novel, but the revelations about his life spin the story line forward. Ann Granger provides genre fans with a fine entry to the Mitchell and Markby Cotswold series.

Harriet Klausner

Enjoyed as much as the others
You should enjoy the book even if you haven't read any of the earlier entries in the series. Ann Granger will gently fill you in on what has gone before. Marby and Meredith's relationship moves forward by the tiniest of steps, so you won't have missed much. The murder weapon is interesting. The mystery unravels nicely. You won't be sheltered from the hard facts of life, but you won't have your nose rubbed in them, either. Personally, I think every adulterer who thinks s/he is going to get away with it should read this book. It fits the old saying about being sure that your sin will find you out. (That's not giving away much. It's obvious early on that adultery is the root of the matter.) I've always enjoyed learning that an author whose works I like shares an interest. I'm pleased that Ms. Granger chose to mention *Sprig Muslin* of all of the late Georgette Heyer's many regency romances, because that's my favorite of her books. (From the description of the cover, I'm sure that mine is a different edition, though.) For readers who are not familiar with Heyer's work, she also wrote mysteries. "Penhallow", the name of one of the characters in this book, is the title of one of Heyer's mysteries. I really, really, hate the fact that so many hardcover books have boring or ugly dustjackets compared to paperback covers. I'm pleased that this mystery has a dustjacket that fits the mood of the book. [Note to the publisher: Given the title of the book, the last line of the quoted epitaph should probably be "call the dead" instead of "all the dead".] Ann E. Nichols