Lamb to the Slaughter Book

In the pretty and tranquil market town of Kirkluce, the proposed development of a chain superstore has divided the population in an increasingly bitter feud. The low-level aggression of bored youth that is generally tolerated has become sinister. The bloodied carcass of a sheep abandoned in the streets is more than just unpleasant vandalism, and teenage bikers have begun terrorizing a woman to breaking. When an old man is brutally gunned down on his doorstep and a second victim is killed in what seems a random shooting, the fear in the town becomes tangible. Detective Inspector Marjory Fleming will not accept that the crimes are motiveless, but she struggles to make sense of the two murders. How are they connected, and will she find the perpetrators before more violence erupts?

Publishers Weekly

The fourth in Templeton's series to feature Scottish Det. Insp. Marjory Fleming (Cold in the Earth, etc.) finds Fleming's quiet community of Kirkluce divided by a plan to open a superstore that threatens local trade. Soon after Col. Andrew Carmichael, the owner of property essential to the developer's proposal, receives a fatal shotgun blast to the chest, someone shoots young rowdy Barney Kyle in the back as he's riding his bike. While the motive for killing Kyle appears different, Fleming and her team find some suggestive links between the two victims. Templeton does a nice job of conveying the details of smalltown life, though her characters and their motivations are less well developed than those of such better-known writers as Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters. Toward the end, the author throws in enough twists to distinguish this from many similar contemporary British police procedurals. (Mar.)

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