Yellowhammer

The new Essex-based thriller from the author of BLACKWATER and the Detective Jack Frost prequels

July 1983, Essex. A boy playing hide-and-seek sees a fox tugging at something up on a railway embankment. He approaches it cautiously. Seconds later, a blast is heard, and rooks ascend from the poplars surrounding the farmhouse at which the boy is spending his summer holiday with cousins.

DI Nick Lowry is called upon to investigate two deaths at Fox Farm, the home of eminent historian Christopher Cliff. The body in the farmhouse kitchen is Cliff himself, having seemingly taking his own with an antique shotgun. The fox-disturbed body on the property boundary is as yet unidentified.

Lowry is already under pressure: County Chief Merrydown was at college with Cliff and knows the family. He must enlist colleagues Daniel Kenton and Jane Gabriel to answer two key questions: just who was at the house with Cliff that morning, and just what has since happened to Cliff's wife?

“Vivid and compelling, with great evocation of the 1980s period.Taut, atmosphericPerfectly structured . . . a new Essex reimagined as a noir landscape.The smell of the marshes permeates every page . . . This is old-style policing set in an interesting period. - Daily MailBrilliantly engineered police procedural. - Daily MirrorA fast-moving thriller . . . strong characters, dark humour and a terrific sense of place. I was totally absorbed.”

Vivid and compelling, with great evocation of the 1980s period.

Taut, atmospheric

Perfectly structured . . . a new Essex reimagined as a noir landscape.

The smell of the marshes permeates every page . . . This is old-style policing set in an interesting period. - Daily Mail

Brilliantly engineered police procedural. - Daily Mirror

A fast-moving thriller . . . strong characters, dark humour and a terrific sense of place. I was totally absorbed.

James Henry is the pen name for James Gurbutt. He has written four prequels to R.D Wingfield's Frost series and three Essex-based novels featuring DI Nick Lowry. He works in publishing and lives in Essex.

The new Essex-based thriller from the author of BLACKWATER and the Detective Jack Frost prequels July 1983, Essex. A boy playing hide-and-seek sees a fox tugging at something up on a railway embankment. He approaches it cautiously. Seconds later, a blast is heard, and rooks ascend from the poplars surrounding the farmhouse at which the boy is spending his summer holiday with cousins.DI Nick Lowry is called upon to investigate two deaths at Fox Farm, the home of eminent historian Christopher Cliff. The body in the farmhouse kitchen is Cliff himself, having seemingly taking his own with an antique shotgun. The fox-disturbed body on the property boundary is as yet unidentified.Lowry is already under pressure: County Chief Merrydown was at college with Cliff and knows the family. He must enlist colleagues Daniel Kenton and Jane Gabriel to answer two key questions: just who was at the house with Cliff that morning, and just what has since happened to Cliff's wife?

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