I'm reviewing ...

 ... Fox Evil by Minette Walters.  I've always liked Walter's stories, and some I've read more than once.  Although this story has been around for quite a while, it was new to me, and I think it might be staying on my bookshelves.  Read on ...

An absolutely riveting read.  Ailsa Lockyer-Fox dies in suspicious circumstances.   Her husband Colonel James Lockyer-Fox is the prime suspect but the coroner and exonerates him.

But there are unseen tensions within the little Dorset village.  There are a group of gypsies encamped in a copse adjoining the Lockyer-Foxes' small estate.  The gypsies are attempting to lay claim to the land as their own, but in the village of Shenston, there are too few to resist or refute the claim – not that these people would want to be seen working together – there are too many old rivalries between the permanent residents of this sleepy little place.

Then James begins to get threatening phone calls and nuisance calls, and refuses to challenge them or deal with them, and instead focuses on his search for his illegitimate grandchild.  James becomes more and more reclusive until Mark Ankertone, his solicitor, comes down from London to see him and uncovers the mental torture to which his client has been subjected.  It is at this point that we also meet Captain Nancy Smith of the Royal Engineers – the long-lost granddaughter, and the opportunity for romance between these two is not lost.  But this is a crime novel, and I just could not stop myself wanting and hoping for Mark and Nancy to hit it off – Walters kept me waiting right to the very end.

The story is very well told with scenes from one aspect of the story interspliced with scenes from another theme.  As you get closer to the end, the scene interchanges happen more frequently, and at the end of each one, there is always a cliffhanger.  It’s definitely a page-turner.