Gently in the Sun

The heat is on when a beautiful young woman is found dead on a beach at the height of summer

Every man in Hiverton knows Rachel Campion. She is the most gorgeous girl to have turned up in the fishing village in living memory. When she is discovered lying dead on the beach, Gently joins the throngs of summer visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the seaside in the midst of a summer heatwave - and as the temperature soars, the mystery deepens.

The long-buried skeleton of a woman is unearthed close to where Rachel's body was found and Gently suddenly has the riddle of two mysterious deaths to solve. Many of the locals, including the secretive brotherhood of fishermen, seem particularly reluctant to help Gently answer the vital questions: Why was Rachel Campion murdered? How is the old skeleton connected with the new crime? And who is the murderer?

Alan Hunter was born in Hoveton, Norfolk in 1922. He left school at the age of 14 to work on his father's farm, spending his spare time sailing on the Norfolk Broads and writing nature notes for the Eastern Evening News. He also wrote poetry, some of which was published while he was in the RAF during World War II. By 1950, he was running his own book shop in Norwich and in 1955, he wrote the first of 45 George Gently novels. He died in 2005 aged 82.