The SKELETON IN THE GRASS - Hardcover

Barnard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684189488 ISBN 13: 9780684189482

Publisher: Scribner, 1988

Synopsis

Sarah Causeley leaves an unhappy girlhood in a quiet English village, joining the pacifist Hallam family, but pre-World War II tensions lead to murder, and she begins to suspect the sad, shocking truth

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Barnard has been nominated for a record eight Edgar Awards Similar in feel to Barnard's Out of the Blackout also from Felony & Mayhem Who's Likely to Like This? Fans of Alan Furst, John Banville, The Remains of the Day

From Publishers Weekly:

Remarkably inventive British author Barnard recreates England in the mid-1930s in this spellbinding mystery. Sarah Causeley goes to the tranquil country estate where Dennis and Helen Hallam live with their grown childrenOliver, Will, Elizabethand six-year-old Chloe, whose care Sarah assumes. Very soon, the young governess falls in love with the warm, intellectual, generous family. She admires the parents' idealistic pacifism and support for the League of Nations. Rumors of "The King's Matter" (Mrs. Simpson) and the Nazi threat fail to disturb the atmosphere, but Will's leaving to fight for the Republic in Spain is a blow. And more troubles loom at home. Instigated by a vaunting patriot and secret fascist, Major Coffey, village lads play low tricks on "cowardly" Dennis, which culminate in tragedy: one of the boys, Chris Keene, is found fatally shot outside the Hallams' house. The community believes the family guilty of Chris's murder, and the consequences end an idyll for Sarah. The killer is never caught but is identified, years later, in a haunting episode that only Barnard could provide. Paperback rights to Dell.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0684189488
• ISBN 13: 9780684189482
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208