SPOILERS!!!
Another suicide takes place. This time it is Avril Flowers, a woman in her sixties, with apparent no reason to want to die. The strange thing about this is that the door to her bedroom, where she had been found, was locked from the outside. Tina Prentice, her cleaner, found her and she tells Judy and Tanya that she remembers turning the key which was placed in the lock. After that, Judy leads the investigation, and there are other women who in the last year or so committed suicide or died unexpectedly. One was Maggie, who was Avril’s friend and died of a sudden hearat attack, and Judy also investigates the suicide of Karen Hear, a teacher.
The investigation gets more complicated when the government issues instructions for a lockdown. Only key workers can leave their homes. Ruth has to work from home while making sure Kate doesn’t get too bored. Judy still goes to work alongside Nelson, Tyna and Tony, but they take it in turns. Cathbad stays at home with the children, and Maddie, Cathbad’s daughter, has also joined them. Nelson is home alone because Michelle is still away in Blackpool and has not said anything about returning home to be with Nelson during lockdown.
Nelson can’t stay away from Ruth, so he turns up at her place, and for several days they spend the nights together, but also a whole weekend. Yet, their bliss is interrupted when Laura, his daughter, calls, saying that it is horrible to be in her flat during lockdown and wants to go home to be with him. So Nelson has to leave Ruth and Kate. I am curious to know what Kate thinks about her father’s situation and finding him at home with her and her mother these days. She is eleven now and knows that her dad is married to Michelle and has two daughters, who she adores, but what did she think when she found Nelson sleeping in the same bed as Ruth?
Judy continues her investigation and discovers that there is an element in common with all the dead women. They attended a slimming club, Lean Zone, which Ruth attended once and her neighbour Zoe also goes regularly. I have my suspicions that Zoe has killed those women, befriending them and getting them to drink wine which she had doctored with pills. Hugh, who was Avril’s friend, says he remembers Avril was friendly towards a nurse but he doesn’t remember her name, and Zoe is a nurse! I am afraid that Ruth and Kate may be in danger.
Tina, the cleaner, tries to contact Judy because she has remembered something. She leaves a message on her voicemail, and when Judy calls back, Tina’s daughter tells her that her mother has Covid and is in hospital. The next day Judy calls again and the daughter says that her mother has passed away. She says that Tina wanted to tell Judy something she had seen, and she had told her daughter ‘It was you’, something which makes little sense.
Ruth is also getting some strange emails from an unknown sender, telling her to beware the Grey Lady. The Grey Lady is a local legend, based on a woman who was boarded up at home with her parents, and when she was found dead later on, it was discovered that she had eaten her own parents’ flesh. Ruth doesn’t know who could be sending her emails. Then she gets a call from Eileen, a student, telling her that she is worried about a fellow student, Joe. He doesn’t answer when she knocks at the door and the blinds are drawn. Ruth sends Nelson there, and he has to break the door. Joe is not inside, but he has a whole world with a collage of photographs. All of the photographs are of Ruth, some of the university web site, of the book cover, of the TV programmes, and there are a few which Joe seems to have taken from a distance, and Kate is even there. Eileen says that Joe admires Ruth very much, and Nelson finds this kind of shrine disturbing.
Ruth is also trying to find out information about her cottage and why her mother had a photo of the place of 1963. She has even contacted Peter, her old boyfriend, but he has no information.
And in the last chapter Cathbad contracts Covid!
My Reading Journal 