It's spring 1942. Caroline Graham is six months pregnant, overweight, irritable, and most decidedly bored with her "delicate" condition. She hates being tied down and resents her husband Cyril and her cousin Edward for being off on assignment and having fun while she's confined to the village. She grows more restless each day, and her good friend and confidant Leslie Atwater does his best to boost her spirits but fails miserably. What Caroline needs is a problem to solve, "something juicy" to challenge her mind. And, of course, that's exactly what she gets.<br><br>Be careful what you wish for.<br><br>First there's a rash of poison pen letters circulating in the village. Librarian Elspeth Hunter receives a letter, and is the first to die, presumably by her own hand. Other deaths follow. Are the sudden deaths connected to the letters? As weeks pass and the bodies mount, Caroline and Leslie discover a pattern that suggests something more sinister is at work. With Leslie's help, Caroline must use all her cunning and put her life at risk to uncover a cold-blooded murderer -- a remorseless killer who continues to raise the stakes in a deadly game of malice.

A Deadly Game of Malice

During the past months, the villages in the countryside experienced a great influx of evacuees from the cities. So much so, one never quite knew who one’s neighbors were. They could be foreign spies for God’s sake. So that’s why, when in uniform, village wardens had the authority to stop people behaving suspiciously and question them. Caroline said he was far too paranoid for his own good, but Leslie couldn’t help being suspicious. If Caroline were behaving normally, which she definitely is not, she’d be the first to suspect a new face in their midst. He couldn’t wait for the baby to arrive and to have his old fun-loving Caroline back. Given her current moodiness, it couldn’t happen fast enough.


Chapter 5