Long Shadows (ePub)

It's been two years since Derek and Angela met on a coach holiday to Tenhamshire in Driven to Distraction. Now they have decided to start a new life together in the county where they fell in love. It's just unfortunate they're not able to do it alone.

Inviting Derek's mum, Ursula to come to the county was one thing, having her move into their new home while looking for a place of her own is quite another. She's already taken over two rooms. Then Angela's petty thief father, Bert turns up unannounced. The two parents start spending time together and Derek fears his mother has become an unsuspecting getaway driver.

A fellow passenger on that eventful coach trip, Margaret is also enjoying a fresh start in the county, running an exclusive retirement home where her mother, Dora runs amok, operating a secret death sweepstake among the residents, spying on the nurses, and slipping syrup of figs into the gravy. Working there as a gardener, Derek often finds himself an unwilling accomplice to her schemes while tending the extensive grounds and trying to train up his accident-prone assistant, who unfortunately doesn't know his Allium from his Erisymum.

But new lives are always going to be stressful when the old ones haven't been settled correctly. How far will Angela go to protect her family and new life when someone from the old one turns up threatening to expose her secrets? Why does Dora pass out when a new resident arrives at the Home? Why is Ursula always jumpy about Derek's father's death? Why is Derek visiting his ex-wife, Leanne?

The past is still haunting the newest residents of Tenhamshire. Old sins cast long shadows.