Category=FFC
Category=FFD
Category=FFJ
Cornwall
detective
eq_bestseller
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
forthcoming
Golden Age mystery
inspector
literary
seaside
traditional British mystery
whodunit
Product details
- ISBN 9780712369718
- Publication Date: 10 Nov 2026
- Publisher: British Library Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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From the moment that Liane “Lee” Crauford and her husband Bill arrive in the Cornish fishing village of Poltruan, it’s obvious that something is wrong. There’s a storm brewing off the coast and in the house of the Cazalets, Liane's friends, too. At its centre is Sandra, the beautiful but spoilt daughter of Noel Cazalet, who resents her new stepmother, and is simultaneously neglecting her fiancé while flirting outrageously with her cousin. She’s also quarrelled with an old friend of her father and has somehow aroused the hostility of Toni, the temperamental and jealous wife of film director Kenneth Osborne.
So, when Sandra is found dead, washed up on the beach after a party, there are plenty of suspects. Thankfully, former schoolmaster turned detective Hugh Gordon, who’s on holiday in the village, is on hand to start asking the questions – aided by Liane, his ‘Mrs Watson’ and new best friend. Can the unlikely duo unravel the mystery? Or will their growing feelings for each other get in the way?
Susan Gilruth was the pen name used by the English writer Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright (1911–1992) for her seven crime and detective novels published between 1951 and 1963. Several of her novels were adapted as popular BBC Radio serials in the 1960s, though since then her books have become rare collector’s items. Her Christmas-themed novel Death in Ambush was published in the British Library Crime Classics series in October 2025.
