(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

The summer of 1976.
The whole country baking in a heatwave. And in a sleepy Derbyshire village a man, known locally as the Ugly Man, walks into his local with a claw hammer and in front of everyone brutally murders the young woman behind the bar.
For Patricia Lancing, juggling the demands of being a wife and mother alongside her desire to get recognition as an investigative journalist, this could be the case that makes her career...
If she survives it.

Short but sweet.

This was more of a 'why-dunnit' than a 'who-dunnit' but it doesn't detract from the tense and thrilling novella here.

The setting - the 1970's Derbyshire - is an interesting location and one that serves to highlight the real horrors of what The Ugly Man does.

The characters may have been a touch stereotypical of the time but I found the majority of them to have been well written, especially for a novella. Lots of detail without dragging the story down in the process.

This a certainly a novella to invest a few hours in - you won't be disappointed!


Paul
ARH

This book is a super quick read at only 116 pages, but despite that, it is thrilling and captivating. An enjoyable read