MARRIAGE HEARSE

A young woman is found strangled hours before her wedding. DI Wesley Peterson discovers that Kirsten Harbourn was being pursued by an obsessive stalker and had dark secrets her fiancé knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that day in South Devon. A couple made their wedding vows at Morbary Registry Office, and a few days later the groom is found dead in a seaside hotel. As Wesley examines the links between the cases, the skeleton of a young bride is discovered in a field once owned by the family of an Elizabethan playwright. Ralph Strong's play 'The Fair Wife of Padua' is soon to be performed for the first time in over 400 years. Is the bloodthirsty drama a confession to the historic murder, and can it reveal anything about the recent killings Wesley must solve? 'A powerful story of loss, malice and deception.' - Ann Cleeves. 297pp, paperback.