Absent Friends: A Nell Bray Mystery [Paperback]

ABSENT FRIENDS is a ripping good yarn. (Lisa Jardine, THE TIMES )

A sharp eye for high and low society and absurdly readable (DAILY TELEGRAPH )

Linscott writes like a rewarding angel (SUNDAY TIMES )

Another finely constructed and engrossing book from Ms Linscott. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'A sharp eye for high and low society and absurdly readable.'

'Linscott writes like a rewarding angel.'

An intriguingly serpentine mystery of war, murder and politics with an intoxicating dash of good humour featuring the feisty Nell Bray.

The First World War is over, despite victory England is struggling to come to terms with its aftermath and society can never be the same again. Another battle that has been won is by the suffragettes - women not only have the vote they can also stand for Parliament. Nell Bray, flushed with the success of their campaign, is now searching for someone or some party to support her stand for election. Out of the blue she is approached by the widow of a recently deceased Conservative M.P whose husband had been killed by a firework, however the widow is convinced he was murdered by a political opponent. When she offers to cover Nell's election expenses in exchange for her investigating his death, Nell is at first wary of taking the woman's money for a political end, but when she looks more closely at the circumstances of the ex-M.P's death she agrees. In between the hustings and pamphlet printing, Nell discovers more likely suspects than the man's erstwhile political foe, including someone who is trying to undermine her own campaign. As the votes are counted she unmasks the real killer in a most satisfactory denouement to a delightfully serpentine whodunnit.

Gillian Linscott was a journalist and BBC Radio parliamentary correspondent before turning to full-time writing. She now lives near the Welsh borders with her husband, Tony Geraghty, where she is able to indulge in her passions for horse riding and hill-walking.