Four young women are accused of attacking a man during a boating outing after a witness claims to have seen them leave him to drown. The injured man dies before he can explain what happened, and the women’s social standing only intensifies public suspicion that influence will protect them. Rutledge is sent to Cornwall to find evidence where every participant has reason to shape the story.
The case exposes assumptions about female respectability, class and collective guilt in the post-war period. The women’s independence is treated as suspicious, while a single male witness is granted immediate authority. Rutledge must reconstruct the physical event rather than accept the moral judgement already imposed on the accused.
Jacqueline Winspear
20 books
Anne Perry
72 books
Evelyn James
55 books
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
24 books
Rhys Bowen
53 books