Pitch-perfect World War Two crime for fans of Agatha Christie and Jasper Fforde.
Detective Betty Church is forced to revisit ghosts from her past when a skeleton is found buried in the woods. July, 1914: Sixteen-year-old Etterly, running from something, hides inside the trunk of a tree and disappears. The police search but find no trace. Her family and friends wrack their brains, but come up with nothing. And so slowly life returns to normal. The hole in the tree is boarded up and the town of Sackwater moves on.

Only Etterly's best friend, Betty, clings to hope, insisting she can hear her friend crying for help.

June, 1940: A skeleton is discovered buried in the woods. Though most clues have long since decayed, it is wearing an unusual necklace.

As soon as Inspector Betty Church sees the evidence she recognises it. The necklace belonged to Etterly. Fearing the worst, Betty is determined to solve this strange case once and for all.

What happened to Etterly? And why has this secret remained buried for so long?

I was, as usual, sucked in by Kasasian's sheer storytelling ability and his skill in turning a run-of-the-mill cold case plot into a first-class and enjoyable read. He always drags the reader back to the central business, no matter how many false leads. And that is what makes this book so worthwhile * Crime Review *

PRAISE FOR BETTY CHURCH AND THE SUFFOLK VAMPIRE:

'I love this sort of book... Betty has no truck with nonsense. Yay Betty... Is this a rival for M.C. Beaton, my favourite of all time? We shall see' Frost Magazine.

'A nicely complex plot, some genuinely funny moments and some serious observations about the approaching war are balanced by an underlying darkness' Crime Review.

'A wonderfully gripping, old-fashioned murder mystery'

M.R.C. Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as a factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He is the author of the much loved Gower Street Detective series, five books featuring personal detective Sidney Grice and his ward March Middleton, as well as two other Betty Church mysteries, Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire and The Room of the Dead. He lives with his wife, in Suffolk in the summer and in Malta in the winter.