A Question of Identity

This hardback 1978 BCA (Book Club Associates) with dustjacket was published by arrangement with original publishers Constable & Co. Ltd. Story: Under a hot August sun, archaeologists digging for Saxon relics find something more alarming: a carefully buried body of recent date. Hollowfield is inaccessible by road, and the first thing that puzzles Detective Inspector Finch is why anyone should have chosen such a remote and lonely place. Then there's the problem of identifying the body. Could it be Ron Lovell, missing from the neighbouring farm for years? Geoff Lovell, his brother, looks like a man under stress, and Betty, Ron's deserted wife, is white and drained with fear. When Finch approaches them, he finds reserve, hostility and a vicious dog in the yard to deter visitors. Without their help, he sets out to trace Ron Lovell, and to fit together the many curious pieces of the puzzle: the signs of ritual burial...charred photographs on a garden rubbish-heap...washing on a line...a tarnished crucifix and chain. In this new book, June Thomson draws the Essex background with her customary sensitivity and develops character, plot and motive with masterly economy


Genre: Mystery