A Killing Tree: Detective Inspector Zig Batten 1

"One of the best British murder mysteries I've read in a long time."

Escape to the country? Or escape to murder?

November, cider-apple time, and Inspector Zig Batten regrets his enforced transfer from urban Yorkshire to not-so-sleepy Somerset. When hikers discover a dead body, propped against a tree on a lonely hill, Batten needs every grain of his Northern sarcasm to help him seek the killer.

Is it a coincidence the victim worked on the vast private estate of Wake Hall - home of a shifty horse-sales business run by a slap-happy Northern adversary? What exactly is in the horse-boxes that trundle into Wake Hall? And does the maverick Lady Wake know - or care?

Batten's delving is plagued by tensions within his new team, disappearing witnesses, self-doubt, poisoned guard dogs - and a shocking revelation.

Then, as Christmas draws near, the human cost of crime begins to escalate...

• From the Author

The 'Killing Tree' series is set in the real landscape of Somerset in the West Country of England - famous for its pretty villages, apple orchards and vintage cider-makers - all marred by murder - and at times in Greece or Spain. The books may be read standalone or in the following sequence:

A January Killing begins with a 'Wassail' - an ancient winter ceremony using music and drumming to rid the orchards of evil spirits. Shotguns are then fired into the bare branches to spark a fresh crop of apples. But one particular shotgun has far more malicious intent...
In An Easter Killing, the inhabitants of East Thorne wake on Good Friday morning to a heinous sight on Crown of Thorns Hill, which looms over the village...
When, in The Killing of Queen Mab, a convalescing Batten asks why vicious hands would slit the throat of the once-beautiful 'Queen Mab', his search for answers whisks him from Somerset to his native Yorkshire, to Cornwall and to the shores and mountains of Greece. And into danger...
A Secret Killing returns a reluctant Zig to Wake Hall, to old adversaries - and new secrets...
In A Ring O'Bells Killing, set in the quirky world of British Morris Dance, Zig's investigates in England and Greece, to fathom why dancers have suddenly become an endangered species...
In A Cider-Country Killing, Zig and newly-promoted Inspector Ball discover that cider may be nectar, but crime is poison...
And keep a lookout for book 8 in the series...