Act of Violence

(Paperback)

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Description

Peaceful Mickleburgh is the perfect English market town - or so it seems. In fact, it is a perfectly constructed fa ade, having successfully hidden the secrets of its inhabitants for generations. But the casual murder of a man trying to prevent an act of vandalism shatters the genteel appearance.

Parents are forced to consider whether their children could be involved, friends avoid each other's eyes, and partners word their conversations carefully. Somebody in the community is close to the murderer - someone with a past that threatens to resurface, bringing damage and devastation to a whole community.

Reviews

Building to a highly-charged climax it shows how the placid surface of a community can hide beneath it the seeds of catastrophe. Well judged and expertly written - Irish Times

Margaret Yorke also has similarities to Patricia Highsmith... Her books have a quiet fatalism, rather than the terrible menace of Highsmith's stories, but are almost as frightening - Guardian

Typical Yorke story-telling; and there is no one better at it - Birmingham Post

What makes this novel unusual is not the common enough mindless violence but the sensitivity and insight with which Yorke explores the emotions within a small community... Subtly woven into the plot is another, darker threat, providing the surprise ending that is itself an act of violence on the reader's imagination - Daily Express

Author Bio

Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 Cartier Diamond Dagger for her outstanding contribution to the crime fiction genre. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and the author of over 50 novels. She died in November 2012.