The Pillbox Murders

When a young girl is found strangled in a pillbox (military blockhouse) on the edge of an isolated village, it looks like a tragic but uncomplicated sex crime--especially as Jed, the local boy with whom she was last seen, has disappeared. But when Jed's blood-soaked jacket is found in another pillbox further along the river bank, it becomes clear that the case is more complicated. Chief Inspector Dalliance and DS Riley set about untangling a skein of leads, and in the process discover that the respectability of an idyllic English village conceals dark undercurrents. An exclusive swingers' club includes members of the political elite, while the younger generation seems hell-bent on a nihilistic exploration of sexual boundaries. In the meantime, as the community prepares for its annual Morris Dancing festival, another body is found. The page-turning plot reaches a dramatic climax with the prime suspect leading Dalliance and Riley a merry dance through village streets thronged with handkerchief-waving, stave-wielding Morris men.

Nestling in undergrowth by the bank of the Thames, an old wartime pillbox, relic of the nation’s troubled past, finds itself at the heart of events that will haunt the idyllic village of Cardwell.

With last summer’s case still weighing against his name, Chief Inspector Dalliance arrives at the scene of a particularly unsettling murder committed inside the cold, lonely walls of this concrete fortress.

The hunt for an elusive killer sees Dalliance and DS Riley embroiled in a cultural clash between the pleasures of the flesh and a fierce moral righteousness simmering beneath the village’s placid surface. Can Dalliance thread his way through the dark world of sex parties and the innocent traditions of the local Morris Men to solve an increasingly convoluted case and save his reputation?

The Pillbox Murders is the second of Simon Rae’s Inspector Dalliance series, following Bodyline, in which Dalliance had to unravel the intricacies of a murder committed in full public view during a friendly cricket match, and offers the same blend of acute social observation, witty dialogue, ingenious plot twists – and Dalliance’s inscrutable powers of detection.

• | Author: Simon Rae
• | Publisher: Nine Elms Books
• | Publication Date: Jul 01, 2018
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781910533185
• | ISBN-10: 1910533181