Dead-Nettle

In this splendid turn-of-the-century English whodunit, Police Inspector Thomas Brunt, of Rescue from the Rose and Gamekeeper's Gallows, is at it again. This time, a newcomer to a Derbyshire village has been brutally murdered on the moors, and the obvious suspect is Lomas the miner who took her off to his remote Dead-Nettle mine workings. Brunt, however, does not trust the obvious. Sooner or later everybody tells him everything - or nearly everything. All he has to do is guess the rest and patiently await his moment. Hilton evokes a special mood as he paints the countryside, details traditional lead-mining lore, village custom and community loyalties, and scenes from the Boer War that illuminate the central character. In this way he portrays Edwardian England at its best, and sometimes worst, as the grisly plot unfolds.