"Murder in the Mansion" by Faith Martin

There’s a lot of unease going round the Kidlington Police Headquarters of the Thames Valley Police, as well as police offices across England. A sniper is on the loose, and several policemen have been killed. Everyone’s looking over their shoulders. No more smoking in the parking lot. No loitering outside. Officers are jumpy, and with good reason. 

DI Hillary Greene is looking over her shoulder, too, but she’s determined not to let a sniper control her life. And now she and her team have a new murder case – a wealthy woman in the midst of a divorce has been stabbed to death just inside the entryway of her home. 

 

The leads are few, and they go nowhere. The woman’s husband has a solid alibi. So does his current crush. The neighbors noticed nothing. No one saw a car parked nearby. Someone did see a woman riding a bicycle about the right time, but it was a considerable distance away and no identification was possible. 

 

Through slow, exhaustive and exhausting, and often plodding police work, Greene and her officers find a few clues. A possible lover. A sister the victim hasn’t spoken with in years. Threatening letters. 

 

Faith Martin

And, all the time, the sniper is lurking, and we watch in riveting horror as he gets closer and closer to Kidlington.

 

Murder in the Mansion is the eighth in the DI Hillary Green series by British author Faith Martin, and it’s nailbiter of a story. Martin won’t leave the reader hanging, but you’ll be on the edge of your chair through the last page. This may be the best entry in the series yet.

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire. 

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.