A Silent Killer

When widower Shidney Middleton is found dead in his cottage from carbon monoxide poisoning, Sheila Malory is deeply disturbed. The old man had seemed in good health and the ageing wood-burning stove, cited as causing the fatality, had just been serviced. Sheila's suspicions that this was no accidental death just won't be quietened. Sidney had always seemed a pleasant, unassuming gentleman. So Sheila is shocked when, at the old man's funeral, she encounters outright hostility. Then Sheila uncovers some rather shocking information about the deceased - information that paints him in a very different light and leads her to ask how many people might have borne him a grudge?

Hazel Holt was born in Birmingham and was educated at King Edward VI High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. She worked as an editor, reviewer and feature writer before turning to fiction in an attempt to keep up with her son, the novelist Tom Holt. Hazel is also the literary executor of Barbara Pym's estate. Hazel's life is divided between writing, cooking and trying to cope with the demands of her Siamese cat, Flip. She lives in Somerset.