Windows To The World

                   MURDER
                      on the 
                      MOOR


 by C.S. Challinor












It was summer in the highlands, but the only way you would know it was if you looked at a calendar. The temperatures and the inclement weather combined were proof that if you wanted summer maybe you had better go to North Carolina.


Rex Graves, a Scottish barrister is the proud new owner of the Gleneagle lodge. He had purchased it as a getaway for himself and his girl friend Helen D'Arcy. When he was having some sort of mental fit which as we know all lawyers are subject to he had invited a few guests for dinner  and some to stay a few days to inaugurate the place. One of the guests was his friend and colleague Alistair Frazer who had recently suffered the loss in court in the prosecution of a child killer who was released because he seemed to have the perfect alibi. Frazer was taking this loss very personally.

After all the guests had settled in at the lodge, all seven of them, a wicked storm submerged them in a deluge of tremendous proportions. Then there came a knocking at the door, it was an uninvited guest and of all people it was Rex's ex-girl friend Moira. Moira had been a rescue worker in Iraq, had dumped Rex in a brutal fashion and later rued her decision. Moira, for one thing, was a leetle crazy having suffered from PTSD and had somewhat stalked Rex in the past. This brought the complement of people at the lodge to ten. Like ten little indians.







Before the night is over one of the guests is murdered and the body is found floating in the lake. The storm has cut the denizens of Gleneagle off from the town. The land lines are down as well. In this party there are several cell phone forgetters, a few cell phone losers and finally a few dead cell phone owners . Talk about your coincidences! The police are too busy to came anyway because a child has been found dead on the moor as well and a massive manhunt is on. Naturally all the  auto tires are slashed and holy Christie there are only nine people left.






Rex is no stranger to murder; he has solved a few in his day and he sets about finding the weak links in every bodies story. His idyllic retreat is already tarnished by murder and he wants Helen to stay safe, Alistair to find some peace of mind  and especially he wants to be able to send everybody home. To add to the mix the owners of a nearby hotel are raising ideas about a monster in their lake , a cousin of Nessie called Lizzie. They want to show that Rex, himself has a monster in his small loch. It's purported name is Bessie. As much as Rex deplores the ideas of  tribes of Nessie Lizzie Bessie seekers it is the real monster that he is trailing.


What Rex is hoping that he catches the killer, and as for future corpses he hopes there will be none.


I always enjoy Challinor's mysteries. They are well plotted, quick paced and the characters are well done. This is the fourth in the Rex Graves series and there is an allusion to a fifth on the way in which Rex marries. It is MURDER UNVEILED.