TALKING TO STRANGERS

Three women seek the truth about a murder in the Sussex town of Ebbing for three very different reasons.

When hairdresser Karen Simmons is found dead in Knapton Wood the morning after her latest search for likely men at the Neptune pub, it falls to DI Elise King, still recovering from her mastectomy and chemotherapy, to investigate. At the same time, Kiki Nunn, a feature reporter for Sussex Today, sees the case as her ticket back from puff pieces to real journalism. The two women, who’ve already tangled on earlier crimes, work at cross purposes, with Kiki stirring pots Elise wants left alone and going public with information Elise wants to keep secret. Elise’s inquiries will uncover unlovely revelations about Noel and Evelyn Clayton, who found the body, and Ash Woodward, the quiet handyman who was sweet on Karen. And Kiki’s decision to flesh out her investigation of the Band of Brothers—who boast online of their conquests of the women they hold in contempt—by dipping herself into the online dating pool will have harrowing complications of its own. Karen’s murder proves even more devastating for nurse turned receptionist Annie Curtis, who’s never recovered from the killing of her firstborn son, Archie, in Knapton Wood 16 years ago. Though the police swiftly arrested Nicky Donovan, a pedophile who killed himself in custody, for Archie’s murder, Annie is agonized both to feel the old wound being ripped open and to be racked by the unbearable suspicion that Nicky was innocent and Archie’s killer is still at large.

A compelling demonstration of the sad truth that there’s no neutral way to conduct a murder investigation. Everybody pays.