When Andrew Cope and his ex-policewoman wife Kathy, proprietors of an unsuccessful detective agency, up to their necks in debt and on the verge of losing their home, are found dead in their fume-filled car, there are few who doubt that they have simply taken the easy way out. But DCI Lloyd knew Kathy Cope, and doesn't believe she was a quitter. Besides, where did she get all the state-of-the-art office equipment? Why was her shopping put away in all the wrong places? Even her last case is a puzzle. Just why would a member of the super-wealthy Esterbrook family have employed her? When DI Judy Hill is called out to the murder of matriarch Angela Esterbrook, Lloyd's doubts appears to be vindicated; and the Copes' apparent suicide turns out to be just the curtain-raiser on a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions . . .
'Superior mystery fiction.' Publisers Weekly
'Plots, counter-plots, false trails, elaborately constructed alibis, a jigsaw of a crime novel... Well worth puzzling over until the last piece falls into place.' Yorkshire Evening Press
Jill McGown, who died in 2007, lived in Northamptonshire and was best known for her mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill. The first novel, A Perfect Match, was published in 1983 and A Shred of Evidence was made into a television drama starring Philip Glenister and Michelle Collins.