The rules of cricket are almost incomprehensible to most of the non cricket playing world. Which is how DI Steve Winwood felt when bodies started turning up at the Rutherford Cricket Club.
The schoolteacher had a stump driven into his heart, the model was killed by a silver bullet and the banker swallowed poisoned garlic. But it was the fourth murder that made no sense.
In some way all of them were connected to the Cricket Club. Everyone had a different theory from vampire slaying, Happy Families card games and even the letter ‘c’ but Winwood believed in none of these.
He continued to dig into the personal histories of those involved including the computer software developer, the aloof bank clerk and the very dull Museum curator.
He knew they were all linked in some way but until he worked that one out all the murders remained a mystery with no obvious suspect in the frame. The final solution was quite bizarre. Underneath the quintessential calm and ordered world of club cricket all sorts of pent up emotions were let loose.
Readers may still find cricket is played in a different universe but the terms used in a normal game are explained as the story progresses.
