The Sixth Wexford Omnibus

Three cases for Chief Inspector Wexford in one volume: 'Kissing The Gunner's Daughter', 'Simisola', and 'Road Rage'.

'Kissing The Gunner's Daughter'
Sergeant Caleb Martin of Kingsmarkham CID has no idea just how terminally unlucky Friday the thirteenth of May would prove. Even alive, he could have no inkling of the chain of bloody events that would follow . . .

At first, the bloodbath at Tancred House looks like the desperate work of a burglar panicked into murder. The sole survivor of the massacre, seventeen-year-old Daisy Flory, remembers the events imperfectly, and her confused account of the fatal night seems to confirm this theory. But more and more, Chief Inspector Wexford is convinced that the crime lies closer to home, and that it has sinister links to the murder of Sergeant Martin some ten months earlier . . .

'Simisola'
Only eighteen black people like in Kingsmarkham. One is Wexford's new doctor, Raymond Akande. When the doctor's daughter, Melanie, goes missing, the Chief Inspector takes more than just a professional interest in the case.
Melanie, just down from university but unable to find a job, disappeared somewhere between the Benefit Office and the bus stop. Or at least no one saw her get on the bus when it came.

According to her parents, Melanie was happy at home. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend but, until now, there had been no cause to worry about her. And no one liked to voice the suspicion that something might have happened, that Melanie might be dead . . .

'Road Rage'
A by-pass is planned in Kingsmarkham that will destroy its peace and natural habitat for ever. Dora Wexford joins the protest, but the Chief Inspector must be more circumspect: trouble is expected.

As the protesters begin to make their presence felt, a young woman's badly decomposed body is unearthed. Burden believes he knows the murderer's identity but Wexford is not convinced. Furthermore, having just become a grandfather, he is struggling to put aside his familial responsibilities and emotions in order to do his job.

The case progresses, the protest escalates. And alarmingly, a number of people begin to disappear, including Dora Wexford.