Wish You Weren't Here (The Alexis Longbow Murder Mysteries)

Detective Inspector Alexis Longbow is on holiday on Dartmoor. Her well-earned break is interrupted when she finds a body of a man and his horse on the high moor, a cruel re-enactment of the legend of Childe’s Tomb. She is co-opted by the local superintendent to investigate this murder, their own CID on deployment to a drugs bust in Plymouth. At first unwilling, but then knowing that Detective Sergeant Dax from Teigneford Police has also been co-opted, she accepts the challenge. She and Dax are given the use of two small rooms at Princetown police station where she is assisted by two local officers. Dartmoor is set deep in the grip of freezing weather, adding to the harsh backdrop of the moor. The murderer seems to have a fixation with those he thinks have humiliated him. He considers himself to be an author of note, and delivers a manuscript about the myths of the moor, which is cruelly rejected by a local publisher and murder ensues. The local police sergeant, a truculent and argumentative man nearing retirement, is hostile and as another murder takes place, the task becomes complex and frustrating. The murderer overhears laughter and scorn, unknowingly levelled at him as the author of trite stories about the moor. His thoughts turn murderous again and he plans another attack, the victim found in another ghostly re-enactment of a local legend. Alexis and Dax are faced with yet another victim. This murder is conceived in a hurry and the murderer makes mistakes. With evidence mounting, the identity of the murderer is finally discovered and the team rush to prevent a final attack. The murderer is finally unmasked, a shocking discovery, that goes to the heart of the community.