396 pages
English language
Published Feb. 13, 2006 by Onyx.
Feeling burned out, Jury makes an unplanned stopover in Yorkshire and books a room at a cozy inn call the Old Silent. Violence finds him anyway when he becomes the only witness to a murder. Though Nell Healey shot her husband in cold blood, Jury will go to any lengths to help her, including taking sick leave from Scotland Yard to investigate. Calling on his old friend Melrose Plant for help, he must break through Nell's reticence to untangle a web of twisted motives, and twisted lives.
I think this (and perhaps The Old Fox Deceiv'd) is my favourite in this series. Both Abby and Charlie are good examples of Grimes's particular knack for creating strong child characters who have done the best with what life throws at them and, because of that, are objects of the reader's admiration rather than pity.
