The Man Who Was Death
(2014)(The sixth book in the Reverend Bernard Paltoquet series)
A novel by Pat Herbert
Dave Allison is a man with a secret, several secrets, none of them pleasant.
The year is 1968. The Reverend Paltoquet takes on the handsome Dave as his gardener to tend the graveyard as well as the vicarage gardens, and very soon he has the female population in a tizzy, not least among them the vicar's usually imperturbable housekeeper, Mrs. Harper. To outward appearances, he has everything going for him, but there is a dark side to his character. He has the ability to see people's auras, and whenever he sees a black one around a person's head, he knows that person will die.
Four years prior to working for the vicar of St. Stephen's in the borough of Wandsworth, he was employed as gardener to Lord and Lady Mountjoy at Mountjoy Court in a small Kent village. Following the demise of the lord of the manor in suspicious circumstances and the equally suspicious death of Lady Mountjoy's lover, Paul Brierley, Dave is forced to leave and pick up any odd jobs he can to survive.
So, with his new family, he sets up home in Tooting and is soon working in and around the area, and this is when he comes to the attention of Bernard Paltoquet who is looking to replace his old gardener who is well past retirement age.
Dave is popular everywhere he goes, especially with the women, but he is a married man now with a little boy on whom he dotes. But back into his life comes Lady Mountjoy and with her his sordid past rears its ugly head.
Dr. Robbie MacTavish, Bernard's close friend, falls for the charms of Lady Mountjoy when she appears on the scene, unaware that she is a cold-blooded killer.
Slowly the story of Dave and Lady Mountjoy unravels, culminating in both getting their just desserts.
Genre: Mystery
The year is 1968. The Reverend Paltoquet takes on the handsome Dave as his gardener to tend the graveyard as well as the vicarage gardens, and very soon he has the female population in a tizzy, not least among them the vicar's usually imperturbable housekeeper, Mrs. Harper. To outward appearances, he has everything going for him, but there is a dark side to his character. He has the ability to see people's auras, and whenever he sees a black one around a person's head, he knows that person will die.
Four years prior to working for the vicar of St. Stephen's in the borough of Wandsworth, he was employed as gardener to Lord and Lady Mountjoy at Mountjoy Court in a small Kent village. Following the demise of the lord of the manor in suspicious circumstances and the equally suspicious death of Lady Mountjoy's lover, Paul Brierley, Dave is forced to leave and pick up any odd jobs he can to survive.
So, with his new family, he sets up home in Tooting and is soon working in and around the area, and this is when he comes to the attention of Bernard Paltoquet who is looking to replace his old gardener who is well past retirement age.
Dave is popular everywhere he goes, especially with the women, but he is a married man now with a little boy on whom he dotes. But back into his life comes Lady Mountjoy and with her his sordid past rears its ugly head.
Dr. Robbie MacTavish, Bernard's close friend, falls for the charms of Lady Mountjoy when she appears on the scene, unaware that she is a cold-blooded killer.
Slowly the story of Dave and Lady Mountjoy unravels, culminating in both getting their just desserts.
Genre: Mystery
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