The Butcher Beyond

DCI Woodend's first foreign holiday, in General Franco's Spain, ends abruptly - when he sees a fellow guest plunge mysteriously from his hotel balcony to the rocky beach below.

With the help of Paco Ruiz - a former policeman, living in disgrace since the Spanish Civil War - he embarks on an unofficial investigation which provides more questions than answers. Why was the dead man travelling under a false passport? Who are the men he was seen to associate with, but now deny all knowledge of him? Why does the local police chief seem determined to lead him up a blind alley? And who is responsible for the three more deaths which quickly follow on from the first?

It soon becomes plain to Woodend that the roots of the case stretch back thirty years - and that if he is ever to solve it, he must confront history itself.

DCI Woodend prides himself on knowing what makes villages tick - but is at a loss with this one. Why are the villagers, who revered their Witch Maker, unwilling to help catch his murderer? Why have there been no so many suicides in Hallerton? And why, when one has peeled away one level of secrets, does the Chief Inspector find nothing underneath but an even deeper level?

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