Suzanne Downes

Food For The Gallows Suzanne Downes

An historical murder mystery set in the 1820's. The second Underwood mystery finds the self-appointed detective back in the Pennines, now a married man. His brother Gil has been made vicar of a Spa town called Hanbury and it is here where Underwood and his wife Verity arrive for a visit. Within days they are embroiled in another murder mystery when Josephine Dunstable dies in the Spa Pump-rooms, apparently poisoned by a cup of the supposedly healing waters. Since she is seventy and her new husband just barely twenty-seven, immediate suspicion falls upon the groom, and only Underwood believes the young man's protestations of innocence. Hanbury is full of interesting characters and during the course of his investigations, Underwood finds himself befriending Toby Hambleton, a black ex-puglilist, Major Jeremy James Thornycroft, a Waterloo veteran without legs, Lady Hartley-Wells, a redoubtable widow and her foppish nephew Vivian Pepper. Will Underwood find the true killer of Josephine Dunstable or will her young husband Oliver become 'food for the gallows'?The paperback version is formatted in a particular way in order to reduce paper waste. I hope you appreciate this effort and do not mind that the overall look may be slightly different to other paperbacks.