Simeon's Bride

When a woman's skeleton turns up in the small Welsh hamlet of Gallows Cottage, a group of three very different policemen uncovers a two-hundred-year-old conspiracy of silence haunting the guilty and innocent alike. From Publishers WeeklySet in north Wales, this uneven first novel describes the murder investigation of a woman hanged in the woods, her decaying body found 18 months after her death. Chief inspector Michael McKenna directs the police work, and when his pathologist unearths near Gallows Cottage the 1793 remains of another hanged woman, the locals recall the centuries-old story of Simeon, the mad avenger of his wife's wrongful execution. Although the theme of soured marriages connects past and present nicely as the murder plot develops, and as McKenna eventually separates from his wife, the overlong exposition omits some key suspects, including the culprit, until surprisingly late in the narrative. McKenna's personality remains somewhat vague?outside a sort of generalized dourness. Plentiful descriptions, drawn-out conversations and some extraneous scenes also slacken the pace. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the AuthorBorn into an Anglo-Welsh family, and brought up in rural Cheshire and Derbyshire, Alison Taylor studied architecture before commencing a career in social work and probation. She has been instrumental in exposing the abuse of children in care, and has written a number of papers on childcare and ethics. Resident for many years in North Wales, she is married with two children. Her interests include classical and Baroque music, art and riding. She is currently working on a second novel and researching a biographical study of Beethoven.