Gil North, het pseudoniem van Geoffrey Horne, is een Britse schrijver wiens werk zich verdiept in het leven en de sociale dynamiek binnen Afrikaanse koloniën. Voortbouwend op zijn ervaringen als ambtenaar in Afrika, creëert North verhalen die met gevoeligheid de complexiteit van interculturele relaties en de impact van kolonialisme onderzoeken. Zijn schrijfstijl kenmerkt zich door scherp psychologisch inzicht in zijn personages en een realistische weergave van de omgeving, waardoor de lezer wordt ondergedompeld in boeiende menselijke verhalen en morele dilemma's. Met zijn unieke stem biedt North diepe reflecties op de menselijke conditie onder uitdagende omstandigheden.
When Detective-Sergeant Cluff, on the lookout as ever, overhears a conversation in Gunnarshaw concerning the Amblers' estate in Egilsby, he grows suspicious. But when Colonel Ambler is found dead at the riverside, Cluff - unorthodox as ever - promptly embarks on a fishing trip to investigate, much to the despair of Inspector Mole.
From the shadows of a ginnel, Cluff watches a young woman weeping in Gunnarshaw's busy high street - and wonders why. But when a dead body is discovered in a forest plantation, Cluff calls on his extensive knowledge of Gunnarshaw folk, as well as his instinctive perception of human nature, to uncover a trail of fateful and unrequited love.
An attractive young woman is found dead with a handbag of more money than she would've earned in wages. Sergeant Cluff is bought in to gradually find out the truth about the murder.
Amy Snowden, in middle age, has long since settled into a lonely life in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw, until - to her neighbours' surprise - she suddenly marries a much younger man. Months later, Amy is found dead - apparently by her own hand - and her husband, Wright, has disappeared.
When the police are called to a crime scene at a Gunnarshaw grocer's shop, it looks to be a straightforward case of burglary - but not to Detective-Sergeant Cluff, whose subsequent investigations, following a boy's brutal discovery of a dismembered body on the moors, force him to confront the most gruesome murder he has ever faced.
Gunnarshaw is under siege. A peeping Tom prowls the streets and back yards, peering through windows, the police seemingly helpless to catch him. Then, a body is discovered in the garden of the local school's head teacher, much to the dismay of his well-heeled neighbours.