The Detective's Daughter

Description

Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many.Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband, never charged, moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate Rokesmith. Now, thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case papers are in a corner, gathering dust: DI Darnell must have copied them when he retired from the force. Stella knows she should destroy them. Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read...

Reviews

'Skilfully evokes the era and slow-moving childhood summers ... A study of memory and guilt with several twists' Guardian. 'This is a haunting novel about loss and reconciliation, driven by a simple but clever plot.' The Sunday Times. 'This book has a clever mystery plot - but its excellence is in the characters, all credible and memorable...' Literary Review.

Author description

Lesley Thomson has a BA from Brighton University and an MA from Sussex University. Her novel A Kind of Vanishing won the People's Book Prize for Fiction 2010. Thomson teaches at West Dean College and lives in Lewes with her partner.