Books by Aline Templeton
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Reading Templeton has become something of an addiction.
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Cold in the Earth
As the devastating foot-and-mouth virus kills cattle and destroys lives, DI Marjorie Fleming finds herself brought into conflict with the farming community which has been her world.
Cold in the Earth was an Ottakar's Crime Novel of the Month
The Darkness and the Deep
The wreck of the Knockhaven lifeboat with the loss of all three of its crew is a hard blow for the small Scottish town. But it's harder still when DS Tam MacNee discovers that it isn't simply a tragic accident.
Lying Dead
On an eerily quiet May morning in a remote corner of Scotland, a woman is found bludgeoned to death, the silence of the scene broken only by the ringing of her mobile phone.
Lamb to the Slaughter
is the fourth book in Aline Templeton's series set in Galloway and featuring DI Marjory Fleming and DS Tam MacNee.
Dead in the Water
A girl's body found on the rocks beneath the lighthouse twenty years before, has DI Marjory Fleming struggling with what the truth reveals not only about her father but about herself.
Cradle to Grave
Fleeing across a moor in rain and darkness after a landslip has engulfed her cottage, Lisa Stewart stumbles towards a lighted cottage - and a man with a shotgun.
Death is my Neighbour
Hale, 1980, Out of Print
An old woman, violently dead – the shockwaves of the event shatter the smug tranquillity of Melbourne Place as it dreams contentedly through the languid days of the long, hot summer,
For Anne Talbot, defiantly absorbed in her children and wilfully deaf to the world outside, it is a harsh awakening. The shabby dealer who has been haunting the neighbourhood may be an obvious suspect, but acquaintances, neighbours and friends all become entangled in the sticky web of suspicion and distrust.
Anne finds herself having to face painful truths about herself and her marriage, while fear becomes her closest neighbour, until it invades even the safe haven of her home in a final, horrifying perversion of her most cherished values.
Last Act of All
Constable then Hodder & Stoughton, 1995, ISBN 0-340-68269-8
The village of Radnesfield – ugly, remote and inbred – lurked in the heart of Fen Country, by-passed for centuries, keeping itself to itself and nursing its ancient secrets. So it was with deep unease that its inhabitants discovered that the big house and its land, owned by the Radleys as far back as anyone could remember, had been sold to Neville Fielding, television soap star and anti-hero. But for all their dark suspicions, no one anticipated the storm that would demolish their twilight world.
Past Praying For
Constable then Hodder & Stoughton, 1996, ISBN 0340-68270-1
They are well-heeled, comfortable and complacent – or so thinks the newly-Reverend Margaret Moon, disgusted by the materialistic lifestyle of her Thames Valley parishioners. It is only when her brother, a forensic psychologist, comes to stay that she becomes aware of the uneasy currents and tensions which pervade village society.
Someone is concealing a childhood trauma so severe that it has fractured her personality. But who is it?
When the poison pen letters start and arson leads to death, Margaret finds herself drawn to the heart of the problem. But even her brother's professional skills may not be enough to discover the answer before more lives are lost…
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The Trumpet Shall Sound
Constable then Hodder & Stoughton, 1997, ISBN 0-340-70808-5
Eden Harrington, conductor, impresario, and founder of the Harrington Music Festival, is dead. So is Dominic Leigh, the gifted, wayward trumpet-player – only no one seems to want to talk about that, whereas Eden's daughter Anna, obsessive about her late father, is determined to keep his memory alive.
When Anna announces that she is prepared to sacrifice everything to keep the failing festival going, including the career of Adam Beaumont, the brilliant young conductor who has succeeded her father, there is no shortage of people who have a vested interest in stopping her. Then she is found shot and Adam is arrested for her murder.
Penny Beaumont is desperate to prove her husband's innocence, but has her admiration for his genius blinded her to other, darker sides of his complex character? Penny finds herself haunted by the ghosts of her past – even Detective Sergeant Diane Braithwaite has held a grudge against her since their childhood. And when John Dauncey, a pianist with a world-wide reputation, arrives for his concert in the middle of the investigation, he too finds that past events are casting a long shadow.
Night and Silence
Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, ISBN 0-340-75057-X
Large print: Ulverscroft, ISBN 0-7089-4341-1
CD and cassette: Oakhill, ISBN 978-1-8468-247-2
The rural idyll of life in a remote Welsh valley has turned sour for the Cordiners. For David, life in the local police force is deathly dull after the exhilaration of the Met. For artist Tessa, the
local community is a daily torment.
Then a young nurse is found dead at a nearby beauty-spot, her corpse strewn with wild flowers in some sick and sinister private ceremony.
Caught up in the challenge of a murder investigation, David misses the signs that danger is stalking his wife in their secluded cottage. Imprisoned by fear and isolation, Tessa's efforts to escape her situation expose her to even more deadly danger, for the roots of the tragedy stretch far back into the past…
Shades of Death
Hodder & Stoughton, 2001, ISBN 0-340-79429-1
CD and cassette: Oakhill, ISBN 978-1-84648-362-2
Deep in a Derbyshire cave, the skeleton of an eleven-year-old girl has lain undisturbed for eighteen years. Its discovery brings to light the half-forgotten and horrifying rituals performed by a group of children in their chilling 'Egyptian game.'
But the game is by no means over. Technology adds a new dimension to the sinister manipulation practised by the group's former leader, and primitive fear returns to haunt his former acolytes,