The Killing of Ellis Martin — Lucretia Grindle

POOR LITTLE RICH DEATH

In Kent, the greatest threat to peace and quiet in the quaint village of Wildesham was the new Channel Tunnel. But then a corpse's hand reaches from a shallow grave, beckoning Chief Inspector Ross and his feisty Welsh assistant, Owen Davies, to investigate.

The hand belongs to the late Ellis Martin, a well-heeled young local known for irking her neighbors. Its rigid finger points to a plethora of suspects, for Ellis's prickly personality aroused many a strong emotion. There's Ken Dawling, a rough-hewn businessman whose new haulage depot Ellis vehemently opposed...Ellis's former best friend, American painter Kate Davidson, who was once quite in love with Ellis's fiance and now hides in her studio with her violently-colored painting of wild animals...and David Grainger, the sensitive fiance spurned by Ellis for another, left to toil bitterly and alone on his farm.

When laconic Inspector Ross tries to find out exactly who Ellis was, he discovers a poor little rich life decidedly lacking in substance. Not a flattering picture, and her meticulously-kept house, now sitting empty, tells surprisingly little more. With few clues to guide him, the detective must unearth the secret meant to remain buried in Wildesham's scrubby Tinker Wood with pretty Ellis Martin.