THE DEAD OF WINTER

It's a bitter winter in the Yorkshire town of Bradfield, where Inspector Michael Thackeray (Death by Election, 1994, etc.) confronts the murder of Linda Wright, who'd worked for the long- established real estate firm of Cheetham and Moore. Linda's body was found in her own car, which had caught on a bump near the top of a reservoir—or else it might never have been found at all. Suspicion immediately falls on a suddenly vanished Jimmy Townsend, Linda's frequent escort and a fellow employee at the company, which had lately been the object of investigation into mortgage scams. Just at this time reporter Laura Ackroyd, Thackeray's lover, has been sent to Arnedale, 20 miles away, where Townsend's dying mother and hard-bitten sheep-rancher father still live. Laura's boss, owner of the Arnedale Observer, wants Laura on the scene as the locals, headed by farmer Ray Harding and realtor Barry Moore, do battle with a pathetic band of New Age travelers camped in the hills. They're supported by Faith Lawrence and by Fergal MacKenzie, who puts out a free paper that competes with the Observer. Amid escalating rumors of farm sales and development plans, brutal attacks and killings are happening, largely ignored by the local police chief until Thackeray arrives to see justice done and to solve his own case as well. Psychologically acute, with graphic depiction of a bleak, snowbound scene, characters who are often as chilling as the place, and the tense, tortured love affair between Laura and Thackeray. Absorbing stuff.