Murder as a Working Hypothesis (The James Clatterbridge Mysteries Book 1)

A body in the rhubarb patch was not part of the plan.

James and Inky Clatterbridge have come to Abbey Marina in search of a quieter life. Their houseboat at No. 7, Pontoon Pike offers exactly what they’d hoped eccentric neighbours, evenings at The Heron, and the slow satisfactions of tending an allotment beside the river.

Then Inky discovers a dead man half hidden beneath the rhubarb leaves.

The victim – a rough sleeper known only as G – seemed to drift unnoticed around the marina community. But murder has a way of exposing the hidden currents beneath even the calmest waters. And when the police recover the apparent murder weapon – James’s missing dibber – suspicion begins to settle alarmingly close to home.

The police believe the case is straightforward. But James, a writer of horror fiction with a professional interest in human darkness, has a working hypothesis of his own.

As he starts asking questions among the houseboats and pontoons of Abbey Marina, James discovers a community held together by secrets, loyalties and long-nursed grievances. The deeper he digs, the clearer it becomes that somebody in the marina knows far more about the murder than they are prepared to admit.

And somebody is willing to kill to keep the truth buried. Murder as a Working Hypothesis is the first novel in the Clatterbridge witty, atmospheric cosy crime with a dark edge, set among the waterways and allotments of Bedfordshire.

Small marina. Big secrets. One very stubborn sleuth.