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Overview
When the bodies of the Cowpers, a reclusive middle-aged couple, are discovered brutally slaughtered — and their teenage daughter goes missing — the tiny village of Nether Bowston reels in shock. And as the townspeople mull over the first murder in a century, everyone is asking the same question: Where is Gemma Cowper?Just down the road from the murder scene, Alison Akenside divides her time between cultivating her roses and reporting for the Rutland Record. Like Gemma, Alison grew up in the village — and knows what it's like for a young girl whose dreams are far grander than her prospects.
Alison searches for inside information on the murder, hoping finally to sell a story to a national newspaper. But as the case leads her into the darkest corners of this bucolic town, she realizes that not everything is what it seems. And soon Alison, like the rest of Nether Bowston, will discover what really went on behind the tightly drawn curtains of the Cowper home — and find out if Gemma is the victim of a madman ... or something much worse.
Synopsis
When the bodies of the Cowpers, a reclusive middle-aged couple, are discovered brutally slaughtered — and their teenage daughter goes missing — the tiny village of Nether Bowston reels in shock. And as the townspeople mull over the first murder in a century, everyone is asking the same question: Where is Gemma Cowper?
Just down the road from the murder scene, Alison Akenside divides her time between cultivating her roses and reporting for the Rutland Record. Like Gemma, Alison grew up in the village — and knows what it's like for a young girl whose dreams are far grander than her prospects.
Alison searches for inside information on the murder, hoping finally to sell a story to a national newspaper. But as the case leads her into the darkest corners of this bucolic town, she realizes that not everything is what it seems. And soon Alison, like the rest of Nether Bowston, will discover what really went on behind the tightly drawn curtains of the Cowper home — and find out if Gemma is the victim of a madman ... or something much worse.
Publishers Weekly
An air of brooding and unpleasantness hangs over this British author's quirky third novel (after Dance with Me), an atmosphere that can't quite camouflage its wandering, insubstantial plot. When Thomas and Edith Cowper, an outwardly respectable couple residing in Rutland County, are murdered and their teenage daughter, Gemma, goes missing, local newspaper reporter Alison Akenside sees their story as the one she's been waiting her whole life to cover. Alison follows the investigation closely, from the moment the bodies are found with their multiple stab wounds through the search for the missing teen to the inquest ending the case. In the process, Doughty reveals a great deal about both Alison's and the Cowpers' dysfunctional families. The reporter's unbalanced mother, her vagabond brother and a second brother who died in infancy are contrasted with Gemma, who for all her cleverness fails to live up to her parents' high hopes. In the one parallel, the mind-numbing dullness of their lives drives a parent in each family mad. How the offspring respond to their respective heritages forms the core of the novel. Readers expecting they will find a cozy--as the book's publicity suggests--will be disappointed; those looking for a psychological suspense thriller will be better served. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|