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** spoiler alert ** "Fox Evil was well-named. He used women and children until he lost interest in them, then he killed them. He was the worst kind of predator. He killed for pleasure."

Minette Walters has the uncanny ability to write her characters and plots into a wide range of social situations. She believes in writing stand-alone novels. She never returns or makes any reference to, any of her previous fictional worlds. This is unusual for the crime/mystery writer but probably owes much to the fact that she was previously published in the generic romance genre.

I have read every novel written by Minette Walters. The Ice House was published in 1992. It won the John Creasey Award for Best First Novel. Since then she has written The Sculptress ,Scold's Bridle, The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker, Shape of Snakes and Acid Row. She has received the Edgar Award and The Gold Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association.

I loved The Ice House and The Sculptress most of all. I enjoyed the others. I looked forward to Fox Evil, but like, Acid Row her previous novel, it failed to captivate me. I’m not sure why but I suspect it has something to do with her trying too hard, going on to ever more complex plots, when maybe she should linger a little longer on well created characters and situations.

This time she travels to Shenstead in Dorset. It is not a village as much as a collection of tensions that come to the surface in Fox Evil. The foxhunting community feels threatened by outsiders. Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden. Her husband, a brute, is the suspect. He is cleared at the inquest but suspicion remains and his London lawyer, Mark Ankerton, attempts to unravel the secrets harboured in the past. We discover children cut out of wills, an illegitimate grandchild once put up for adoption and a campaign of whispers. Walters, as always, weaves a careful plot.