The Playing Fields

by Stella Cameron

Overview

Six weeks after a battered body is found in the grounds of a Cotswold village cricket club, a second body is discovered in the nearby tithe barn. Could there be a serial killer on the loose? When evidence leads DCI Dan O'Reilly to visit the Black Dog pub, owner Alex Duggins and her partner Tony are once again drawn into a police investigation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448308729
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Series:	An Alex Duggins Mystery , #7
Edition description:	Main - Large Print
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stella Cameron is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with over 14 million copies of her books in print. Born and raised in Dorset, England, she now lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

Cameron gets it just right, with a good feel for English village life, plenty of suspense, and a heroine who is both savvy and fearless

Booklist on Melody of Murder

An engaging, expertly plotted tale

Booklist

A feisty heroine, plenty of eerie suspense and unusual twists make this village cozy thoroughly engaging

Booklist on Out Comes the Evil

An engaging, expertly plotted tale

Booklist

2021-08-18
Cotswolds pub owner Alex Duggins’ extended tango with the Gambol Green constabulary is quickened by the threat of a serial killer.

Richard Seaton’s final performance on the stage of the Playing Fields, a barn whose boards the Phoenix Players have often trod, is posthumous. He’s been stabbed to death and his body arranged in a pose that can’t be natural. DCI Dan O’Reilly links his death to that of Edward Coughlin, who was brained with a cricket bat six weeks ago and posed just as carefully. While Dan and his squad ponder whether two fatalities are enough to label the perp a serial killer, Alex, a sometime painter who owns the Black Dog pub, looks forward to her wedding to veterinarian Tony Harrison, whose engagement to her is an open secret despite Dan’s attraction to her. But Tony doesn’t seem himself, and there’s an excellent reason why. Shortly before Penny Harrison, the wife who disappeared from his side eight years ago in Australia, is finally declared officially deceased, clearing the way for his remarriage, Tony receives a letter from someone claiming to be Penny and hinting at all she can do to spoil his plans if he doesn’t—well, it’s not entirely clear what he needs to do. So many series regulars, from ex-con Sid Gammage’s two sons to the Black Dog crew, pop up that the killer would stick out even without all the queasy-making mannerisms that shriek, “Killer!” Oblivious to them all, Alex is relegated to two roles: the suspicious contact Dan’s officious Chief Constable warns him away from, and the damsel in distress who has to be saved by the real detectives.

Unlikely to interest anyone but franchise addicts hungry for the latest updates.

Kirkus Reviews