Author(s): Kate Ellis

General Fiction

Norman Openheim is an American veteran of the D Day Landings, on a sentimental journey with his old unit to their West Country base. His is the last body archaeologist Neil Watson expects to find in the ruins of an old chantry chapel... Neil naturally turns to his old friend from student days, Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, for help. Ironically, both men are looking at an invading force - Wes the WWII Yanks and Neil a group of shipwrecked Spaniards reputed to have met a sticky end at the hands of outraged locals, as they limped from the wreckage of the great Armada. Local memories are retentive, and Wes is soon caught up in old accusations, resentments and romances from fifty years before. But, the coolness of Openheim's wife Dorinda, and her reliance on a fellow veteran in the party, offer an all-too-familiar motive for murder. A belligerent group of homeless youths are also under suspicion: then another veteran's wife disappears. Wes's case grows more perplexing, while Neil uncovers is revealed a tragic story from the distant past.