Publisher's Weekly
Radley's ( Death in the Morning ) latest engrossing English village mystery has a new twist: her redoubtable Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill and capable Sergeant Hilary Lloyd work mainly at the tale's start and finish, their presence effectively framing the intriguing personal history of a rural postmistress/novelist. Quantrill and Lloyd investigate the disappearance of an elderly couple, Ziggy and Gladys Zrzecszczuksp ok, really , dubbed ''the Crackjaws'' by their neighbors in Byland, Suffolk. After years of regularly cashing pension checks and purchasing provisions, one day Ziggy fails to pick up his usual groceries. Postmistress Janet Thacker comes under suspicion when she insists that she cashed the checks as usual for Ziggy that day, though no one else remembers seeing him. Investigations center on the text of a novel penned by Thacker, the story of a life of disappointment and thwarted talent. But is the novel more than a fiction? Quantrill and Lloyd must find evidence to prove suspicions raised by their reading of a moving portrayal of village life that is anything but charming and cozy. Mystery Guild alternate.

Library Journal
Not so much traditional British procedural as character study, the latest Inspector Quantrill mystery dwells on the psychological motivation of a major suspect in the disappearance of two elderly village inhabitants. As Quantrill and Sergeant Hilary Lloyd reconstruct the last days of the pensioners, they question various locals, but the bulk of what they learn comes from a neighbor's revelatory autobiography, so action is limited. Mainly for series fans.