Some fast thinking would be required, if I were not to get my head chopped off on the coming Friday.

When Mrs Trelawney, a much-married Australian of considerable fortune, bought the big house at Sowerley, the locals hoped her money would help enrich the locality and the community. Instead they found themselves in a cold war.

When Tessa Crichton arrives in the neighbourhood to stay with some old friends, there is a tense atmosphere as the established inhabitants mount guard over the oak tree threatened by the Trelawney axe. But almost before Tessa can catch up on the local news - eviction of tenants, dogs caught in gin traps, fortress fences round the big house - a murder occurs which makes all that has gone before pale into insignificance.

Hollow Vengeance was originally published in 1982. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

'The fun lies in the style, light and sweet as a soufflé.' Daily Telegraph