'Robert Barnard is always original, never repeats himself and has a delectable wit' Jessica Mann, Daily Telegraph Cosmo Horrocks was over the moon. This was the juiciest story he'd had in years. In his job as an investigative journalist he spent his working days grubbing through the garbage bins of other people's lives (undeterred by the fact that his own wouldn't bear too much investigation), but this one seemed to have everything: religion -- the man was a Catholic priest; sex -- he was accused of impropriety with a teenage unmarried mother; money -- he was thought to have channelled parish funds in her direction. All the story lacked was mystery, but when it acquired that too Cosmo soon found himself out of his depth. The parish of St. Catherine's in Shipley is torn apart by the scandal, and by the secretive processes of its investigation which reveal dysfunctional families, shady doings in high places, and the brittle shell that respectability hides itself behind.
When the truth is finally learned about Pardoe's supposed sins, and about the murder which they have brought in their wake, both parish and town have the wraps whipped away from their apparently happy and respectable existence.
- ISBN10 0007102925
- ISBN13 9780007102921
- Publish Date 31 December 1999
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 12 April 2001
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Collins Crime
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 240
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk