The stabbing in the stables - Simon Brett

When healer Jude pays a visit to Long Bamber Stables one evening - to meet her unusually equine new client and his owner Sonia Dalrymple - she does not expect to stumble across a man laying in the darkness. Co-owner of the stables, Walter Fleet, has been viciously stabbed to death.

Walter leaves behind a cynical wife who shows no desire to mourn his departing. Meanwhile, a horse hand appears to be more of a danger than a help and Sonia Dalrymple seems to be concealing a deeply troubling secret. Unable to resist a mystery, sleuthing friends Jude and Carole begin to make discreet enquiries.

It soon becomes clear that Long Bamber Stables is a hotbed of dangerous passions, murderous rivalries and hidden truths . . . and this horsing community will do anything to protect their reputations.

'Murder most enjoyable . . . An author who never takes himself that seriously, and for whom any fictional murder can frequently form part of the entertainment industry' COLIN DEXTER, The Oldie

'One of the exceptional detective story writers around' Telegraph