Fox Evil
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | Minette Walters |
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| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Honors | |
| Minette Walters’s ninth novel, Fox Evil, set in the seemingly bucolic English countryside, establishes a blistering new standard for contemporary suspense.
When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with bloodstains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner’s investigation deems it death by natural causes, but the gossip surrounding James refuses to go away. Friendless and alone, James and his reclusive behavior… | |
Minette Walters’s ninth novel, Fox Evil, set in the seemingly bucolic English countryside, establishes a blistering new standard for contemporary suspense.
When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with bloodstains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner’s investigation deems it death by natural causes, but the gossip surrounding James refuses to go away.
Friendless and alone, James and his reclusive behavior begins to alarm his attorney, whose concern deepens when he discovers that his client has become the victim of a relentless campaign accusing him of far worse than the death of his wife. James is unwilling to fight the allegations, choosing instead to devote his energies to a desperate search for the illegitimate granddaughter who may prove his savior as he battles for his name-and his life.
Honors
Reviews
Barnes and Noble
In Acid Row, Minette Walters masterfully crafted a run-down urban hellhole for her setting; with Fox Evil she proves herself equally adept at creating the pastoral milieu of a tiny Dorset village. For her ninth psychological thriller, the top-notch crime writer offers another thoroughly compelling cast of characters, including retired colonel James Lockyer-Fox, whose wife has died mysteriously; Captain Nancy Smith, his biological granddaughter, who was adopted hours after her birth 28 years ago; and Fox Evil, the leader of a band of new age “travellers” who believe they’re squatting on a few acres of unclaimed village land in order to establish a legal ownership of the property. (It quickly becomes clear that the travellers are merely pawns in Evil’s larger game.) As that story unfolds, Lockyer-Fox’s solicitor, Mark Ankerton, sets out to stop a series of malicious phone calls his client has been receiving but soon finds himself entangled in a twisted scheme that involves the late Mrs. Lockyer-Fox and Evil—a plot that has already caused one death. Although the stakes aren’t as high as those in Acid Row (where the lives of thousands were at risk in a riot), Walters builds narrative tension every bit as high in Fox Evil, with a tightly woven plot that keeps you entranced by details of her characters’ lives and actions—and keeps you guessing at every turn. —Sue Stone
