The Judgement of Strangers : Book 2

Author: Taylor, Andrew

Crime & mystery

Published on 5 February 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers (Hemlock Press) in the United Kingdom as part of 'The Roth Trilogy' series.

‘Complex, with lots of sinister implications… moves the traditional crime novel on to some deeper level of exploration’ Jane Jakeman, Independent

It is 1970. David Byfield, a widowed parish priest with a dark past and a darker future, brings home a new wife to Roth. Throughout the summer, the consequences of the marriage reverberate through a village now submerged in a sprawling London suburb.

Blinded by lust, Byfield is oblivious to the dangers that lie all about him: the menopausal churchwarden with a hopeless passion for her priest; his beautiful, neglected teenage daughter Rosemary; and the sinister presence of Frances Youlgreave – poet, opium addict and suicide – whose power stretches beyond the grave.

Soon the murders and blasphemies begin. But does the responsibility lie in the present or the past? And can Byfield, a prisoner of his own passion, break through to the truth before the final tragedy destroys what he most cherishes?