The Secret Passion of Angela Clayforth

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The Secret Passion
of Angela Clayforth

There is, in fact, rather a history to the house which could be useful for
– ah – publicity. A talking point, perhaps. Apart from the ghost,
someone was found here once ...

She could still see the old manor house as it was on that summer’s evening: abandoned, ready to be bulldozed by the developers; beautiful in an empty, haunted way. Inside, field mice scuttled behind the wainscoting of echoing rooms, rats nested in fireplaces and bats hung upside down from the ancient rafters. Some of these creatures, thought Stella, must have seen Mrs Clayforth lying in one of the upstairs rooms, cold and white, eyes staring at the ornate ceiling. They might even have seen the knife enter the woman’s body, over and over, in that furious attack.

But it would be years, whole decades, before Stella would find out what really happened on that July night, back in 1965; though she’d long had her suspicions. And, even when the evidence finally stared her in the face, she had good reasons, she told herself, for not going to the police.

Set in the Home Counties of southern England, the demolition of an old manor house signals the destruction of the suburban community surrounding it. As tensions rise, a grisly murder is committed and a young girl goes missing. Will local residents ever find peace again?

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