In this, the seventh installment of Clare Curzon's Mike Yeadings series, the Thames Valley police are called in to investigate the death of Lorely Pelling. Miss Pelling lived a reclusive life on property that belonged to her family, all dead now, collected cats, grew her own vegetables, and had sold off some of the family's land in order to live that way. The police immediately wonder if a stray shot from an earlier teens party (where the kids were practicing shooting) at the nearby home of the Welch family may have been the cause of her death, but other clues come to light that suggest it was foul play. Mike Yeadings, a Detective Superintendent, and his team are in charge of the investigation, and must get to the bottom of Miss Pelling's murder, but unwilling witnesses, too many suspects and some red herrings aren't going to make it easy for them.

This is my first Mike Yeadings novel, because the first few are very rare and hard to come by. Normally I prefer to start at the beginning of a series, but this time due to unavailability, this is where I began. I don't know what I've missed as far as character development, but I like Yeadings as a character and will definitely be reading more of Curzon's work. The ending of this novel seems a bit strange, considering it was originally written in 1991 (I won't say why in case someone plans to read this) but otherwise, the book was good, the mystery was solid and I liked it.

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