Cold in the Earth (Mitchell and Markby Mystery 3)

A tightly knit English village provides the atmospheric background for this third mystery in Ann Granger's Cotswolds series. To former Foreign Service Officer Meredith Mitchell, the Cotswolds represent a haven of peace and tranquility away from her stuffy London apartment; to her old friend Chief Inspector Markby, they represent home specifically the charming village of Bamford. Markby's anger at watching bulldozers threaten one of his boyhood haunts turns to alarm when workmen uncover a recently buried corpse. The identity of the dead man remains a mystery; the worker who dug up the body has disappeared and the farmers who own land adjacent to the burial site are little help. Charming, eccentric old Mrs. Carmody treats Markby, whom she has known since he was a boy, as if he still is one, and Mrs. Winthrop at the neighboring farm is happy to supply him with scones and tea but gives little else away. The only cheering prospect on the horizon for Chief Inspector Markby is the forthcoming arrival of Meredith, who has finally, after much prodding, accepted his invitation to visit. Together they begin to follow a trail of clues that leads them from an old ruin where witchcraft may once have been practiced to a dangerous and illegal business to the terrible secret in one family's past. In the newest Meredith and Markby mystery, the sleuthing duo finds that even the quaintest of English villages has its perils. When a bulldozer unearths a corpse in Chief Inspector Alan Markby's boyhood hometown, he and consular officer Meredith Mitchell uncover some sordid and deadly secrets. Martin's. Evil Unearthed Progress has overtaken the charming English village of Bamford in the Cotswoldsand Chief Inspector Alan Markby resents the heartless desecration of his boyhood home. But when a bulldozer uncovers the corpse of a mystery man buried alive on what was once Lonely Farm, Markby realizes that shopping malls and fast-food may be the least of Bamfords woes. Having accepted her friend Markbys invitation to spend some vacation time in the country, consular officer Meredith Mitchell once again finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation. For just beneath the surface of this quaint, quiet community, something sordid and deadly is growinga devastating evil that must be weeded out of one familys garden of terrible secrets.