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When David Maybury disappeared from his home, the Streech Grange Estate, his beautiful, young, red-haired wife, Pheobe, told police he just walked out on her and their two children one evening and never returned. Maybury was known to have been in financial difficulties. His wine business, funded by his wife, which he ran from the cellars of her estate, was virtually bankrupt. It was widely believed that Maybury physically abused Phoebe, although she excused her often bruised face as the result of clumsiness, falls, etc.. After ten days with no sign of the man, the police searched the Grange and the surrounding wood thoroughly, even digging up the Maybury's extensive gardens - to no avail. An overly zealous detective questioned Pheobe to the point of harassment. He also implied she was responsible for her parents death in an auto accident a few years before. Finally the unsolved Maybury mystery was laid to rest in the cold case files. Ten years later Pheobe Maybury, now in her mid-thirties, is still living at her elegant country home, along with her two best friends from childhood, Anne Catrell, a journalist, and Diana Goode, an interior decorator. The three women are shunned by local society, and much maligned - believed to be witches, lesbians, or both. When a badly decomposed corpse is found in the estate's ice house, two cynical detectives arrive at the scene to investigate. The nightmare of ten years before begins anew. Detective Chief Inspector Walsh was originally in charge of the missing husband case ten ago. He has never lost his conviction that Pheobe murdered David, and is sure the unidentifiable body must be his. It appears Walsh, with the one-track mind, has his own agenda. Detective Sergeant Andy McLoughlin, a charismatic but troubled man looks at the clues, both recent and past, along with the various testimonies, and begins to take a different view from his superior. To arrive at the truth, however, he must examine his own demons and motivations. Author Minette Walters won the John Creasey Award for Best First Crime Novel with "The Ice House." This unputdownable mystery is richly deserving of the prize and much praise. Phoebe, Anne and Diana are complex characters and their relationships with each other, and with the two detectives, really make the book special - a delightful and thrilling read. I was very much taken with the characters, more so than usual, and cared very much what happened to them. There is much more than a murder mystery, or two, or three, going on in this suspenseful novel. There are unexpected twists and turns along with a number of fascinating subplots. I highly recommend "The Ice House."
JANA
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