Belinda Bennett

Lily's Grave Belinda Bennett

A flawed sprig of lace is the only clue to a killer's identity in this gripping, fast-paced wartime murder mystery. The body of murdered evacuee Lily Jones is pulled from the River Otter in Devon during the latter part of the Second World War, sparking a hunt for a killer. Thirteen-year-old Lily disappeared after attempting to get into a dance organised by military personnel at the ballroom of a prominent town centre hotel. She had waited in a queue for three hours, only to be turned away at the door. The girl standing next to her in the queue is later the only person who comes to her aid when she is attacked. Thinking she has saved her, Joan Hughes, a young lace-maker, runs home during the blackout. She is shocked to discover two days later that Lily has been reported missing and that she was most likely the last person to see her before she disappeared. This twisty, dark and shocking thriller follows Joan as she tries to piece together what happened to Lily in the fateful minutes after she left her side. With American and Canadian airmen, not to mention a British military base, on the town's doorstep, everything points to a stranger crime. But is it? In a story that charts Joan's innermost feelings, from the minute she slips on her sister's dress to go to the dance, to the moment she claps eyes on a defiled Lily running for her life and to the second the killer's identity is finally revealed, Lily's Grave will keep you eagerly turning pages to get to the truth. Inside: Lily's Grave is followed by a short, original story - Catherine's Curse.