Biographie de l'auteur
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire. During World War II she saw service in the Women's Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church. She was widely travelled and had a particular interest in both Greece and Russia. Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford don and amateur sleuth, who shared her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, 'authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers'. She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, she stated that characters are far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing 'I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me'. Critics have noted that she has a 'marvellous use of language' and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection. Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
Présentation de l'éditeur
Richard Garrett lives in a beautiful house with his second wife, Verity, and her two children from a previous marriage. But soon after their wedding, Richard discovers that his new wife is a depressed alcoholic with violent mood swings. Richard slowly finds himself drawn into an unlikely friendship with his neighbor, Marigold. After Marigold's house is burglarized, Richard's concern for her drives Verity into a fit of jealousy which quickly spirals into a dangerous reign of domestic terror that threatens to destroy more than just their marriage.
Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
