Detective Inspector Nick Trevellyan and his elegant lover, businesswoman Alison Hope, should have stayed longer in Venice. They have just returned from a romantic Italian holiday when Nick must take charge of a murder case that profoundly shocks and disturbs their West Country village of Little Hopford. Eighteen-year-old Ben Lawson has worked hard to pass his exams and qualify for college. Only Frisco Carstairs now stands in his way. The young girl - reputed in the village to be essentially amoral in her sexual inclinations - watches smugly as Ben tells his mother that he and Frisco are engaged. Alison and Nick understand only too well the overwhelming power of sexual passion, especially among the young. They also understand that Ben has broken his mother's heart. Is Ben so besotted by Frisco that he will marry her and relinquish his mother's dreams? The diamond on Frisco's finger suggests his answer. "Over my dead body," says Ben's mother, but it's Frisco's body that is found near an isolated country lane. Strangled with her own scarf, vulnerable in death as she never seemed to be in life, Frisco no longer poses a threat to any of the good citizens of Little Hopford. Initially assuming that he has an open-and-shut case, Nick discovers that Alison may hold the key to a crime of passion that is much subtler and more complex than anyone could have guessed. Nick is the professional detective, but it's Alison who often leads the way to the truth. Witty, romantic, evocative of the richness and eccentricity of English village life, Time of Hope confirms Susan B. Kelly's reputation as one of the most promising and original new talents on the crime-writing scene.