Daughters of Darkness
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
"Superior... Refreshingly, Spencer doesn't make Redhead, who's capable of snark and petty malice, wholly likable. Readers will look forward to the further adventures of this distinctive lead" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Private investigator Jennie Redhead is hired to investigate a murder that's left the police baffled, in this gripping historical mystery set partly in 1970's Oxford and partly in war-torn 1940's London.
Oxford, 1975. Three years ago, world-renowned anthropologist Grace Stockton was slain in a brutal, unprovoked attack. Despite a large-scale police investigation, the identity of the prime suspect was never uncovered . . . and neither was the location of Grace's head.
But Grace's daughter, the wealthy academic Julia Pemberton, refuses to accept that the trail has run cold. Determined to find out who killed her mother, she knows just the woman for the job: private investigator Jennie Redhead.
Who was the woman caught on CCTV visiting Grace's isolated home on the day of the murder? And why did she cut off her victim's head? Jennie's search for answers takes her on a dark, disturbing journey into the past, from the ancient tribal customs of Papua New Guinea, to war-torn 1940's London, and to a dark tangle of secrets and scandal that someone is desperate should never be revealed . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A baffling cold case preoccupies Jennie Redhead, "Oxford's only redheaded private investigator with an Upper Second in English Literature," in Spencer's superior third mystery set in 1970s Oxford, England (after 2018's Dry Bones). Julia Pemberton, a physics professor with powerful government connections, wants Redhead to solve the murder three years earlier of Pemberton's mother, Grace Stockton, a renowned anthropologist. The victim's decapitated corpse was found in the woods near the home she shared with her husband, an Oxford academic, who was in the U.S. when she died. The police focused their inquiries on an unknown woman who had asked for directions to the Stockton home around the time of the crime, but despite her having been caught on camera at the nearby rail station, the suspect eluded detection. Redhead's diligent sleuthing leads to a satisfying, if downbeat solution. Refreshingly, Spencer doesn't make Redhead, who's capable of snark and petty malice, wholly likable. Readers will look forward to the further adventures of this distinctive lead.
