For David Knight a relaxing glass of wine on a summer evening seemed is the best start to seven days of uninterrupted effort to finish his latest, overdue, mystery novel.
He is meant to be devoting the week to a family holiday in Norfolk with his wife and sons and his last minute decision to stay in London has not been welcomed. All might have been well if he hadn’t let the young woman into his house. But there is something about her he finds familiar. Then she shows him a photograph of five undergraduates and says that one of them is her father. David finds his own face looking back at him and a chill in the summer air.
Sorting the matter out should have been relatively simple. But, because of an accident, David is unable to remember anything of the time, apart from a mysterious woman who haunts his dreams.
So starts a series of events that even an experienced crime like David would have difficulty in imagining. As he is dragged back into the past, murder, in particular, seems determined to make an appearance. David needs all his wits about him, and any help he can get, to avoid becoming a victim of events he can’t recall…
“The most teasingly pleasurable crime mystery novel I’ve come across this year is The Appearance of Murder. The plot is cunningly set up around a novelist writing a crime mystery novel which then dissolves into the real thing. Or perhaps not. The play of appearance and reality is maintained to a satisfying denouement.”
John Sutherland
The Times, Books of the Year, 5 December 2015
“If your taste is uber-clever crime fiction, you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.”
AskMen UK, The Best Books of 2015
“I’ve asked for it to be placed in my Christmas stocking.”
What the bloggers say…
“An intricate mystery that has been a pleasure to unwind with the reluctant investigator. I so enjoyed the inventions too, they were so brilliant.”
Susan Hampson, booksfromdusktodawn
An interview with Linda Hill, lindasbookbag, Best Book Review Blog Award 2016
The Appearance of Murder is published by Spider Monkey Books.
The hardback version (£12.99)is available online or from bookshops or can be purchased (free postage and packing) here.
A paperback version is now also available on Amazon, along with an ebook format.