POLLY Put the Kettle on

Is it pure chance or a malignant fate which sends George Sudley to the village of Lambing, when, newly released from gaol, he seeks a place in which to start his new life? For he chooses it simply by sticking a pin in his Bradshaw. Once there, however, and once he has met the lovely Polly Edge, George has sealed his doom, and there can be no drawing back. A victim of love at first sight, George becomes all too deeply involved in a chain of grim and swift-moving events, culminating in murder. This book is written with the sureness and precision, the ingenuity and the beautiful accuracy of dialogue and character-drawing that we might well expect from the author of The Man Who Looked Back. It is an excellent piece of craftsmanship: it is also first-class entertainment.