Margaret Duffy's schrijven is diepgaand beïnvloed door haar verbondenheid met de natuurlijke wereld, een passie die ze ook kanaliseert in haar werk als tuinontwerper. Haar eerdere ervaringen in de publieke sector hebben een uniek perspectief geboden dat haar verhalen subtiel informeert. Nu ze in Devon woont, creëert ze verhalen die vaak putten uit de suggestieve sfeer van haar omgeving. Haar proza nodigt lezers uit in werelden die zowel door nauwkeurige observatie als door diepe waardering voor de aarde zijn gevormd.
Twelve-year-old Damien 'Spike' Baker loves to climb up trees and walls to look in people's windows. But he makes a deadly mistake when he climbs up some rampant ivy on a large mansion. When his body is discovered on a building site, Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley offer to assist with the investigation. What did Damien see through the window?
Nicholas Haldane was dead, but he wouldn't lie down. And now Julian Hardy, the man who hired him in a bid to destroy Richard Daws, a top official in the National Crime Agency, is out of prison and has changed his surname to Mannering.Patrick Gillard, working for the agency but within the Avon and Somerset force with his wife Ingrid Langley, receives a request from MI5, for whom he used to work, to investigate Mannering. They are then called in when his cleaner makes a shocking discovery.Meanwhile, an enigmatic couple calling themselves Simon and Natasha Graves turn up in the village, intent on pestering Patrick's recently widowed mother. Could there be a connection to Mannering?Patrick and Ingrid are soon embroiled in a deeply personal and disturbing case.
Patrick Gillard is drawn out of retirement when his former NCA boss asks him to find John Brinkley, a newly retired commander of the Metropolitan Police who has gone missing. Patrick is convinced that there's more to the disappearance than meets the eye. What does Brinkley know that has the Met, MI5 and dangerous mobsters all on his tail?