Unsporting Life — Jonathan Gregory

Bad things can happen to very nice people. Two elderly people are murdered in Dorchester, one with a boule and one with a cricket bat. Apart from the use of sports equipment, there seems no connection between the two victims. If the deaths are as random as they seem then Chief Inspector Muga and her team have a serial killer to catch before he or she strikes again. Meanwhile, Tom Flowers and his partners set off to try and catch a gang of thieves who have been attacking race courses around the south of England. This puts the Ash twins in serious danger, James Stonely on the nasty end of a gun again and lands Lady Greta Hollander in a very sticky situation. And ends up with a very small criminal targeting the Ash family in search of revenge. As Mike Ash tries to finish off his second trilogy and Neil and Dax negotiate a promotion, a much beloved local figure is killed, bringing Muga back to the village. She desperately tries to find the murderer before he or she strikes again. In this, the fifth Gemini and Flowers mystery, normal family life goes on as the investigation proceeds. Mike and the twins decide about their future education; Reg Mole grapples with his turkeys, goose rustlers and the magnificent Mrs Fothergill again, while the success of the Happy Thatcher brings parking chaos to the village. And Ramjap Shastri's future plans take a turn for the better. All the familiar Rilton Castle characters return in this story of murder and mayhem, which shows that life can be very unsporting at times, especially in the English countryside.