Road Kill Fourth in the Dido Hoare Mysteries series. First publication: 2000 UK hard/soft back US hard/soft back   More? Read sample chapter Reviews Buy on-line(coming soon)

Everyone’s heart lurches when the telephone rings in the middle of the night. Dido’s fear is that it signals bad news about her father, Barnabas, and so her first reaction is relief when she hears the voice of her small son’s nanny, Phyllis Digby. But Phyllis is calling for help: an odd trio of burglars have forced their way into her flat, locked her into a cupboard, and ransacked the place. And then. before leaving, one of them has stopped to throw her a cordless phone so that she can call for help. Not only that: they have left without stealing anything. And where is Phyllis’ husband?

Phyllis spends her days looking after young Ben and then returns to her happy marriage to a harmless, semi-retired invalid. Frank Digby is just a middle-aged accountant. Or is he? Phyllis knows that he spent several years in prison before their marriage. And when Frank is found murdered, it becomes very clear that his past was much murkier than anybody has realised.

It’s Frank’s past which is going to put Dido and her friends in danger, and which leads to an outcome in which Dido finds herself with her back to the wall and her face turned to a sickening personal choice