The Margaret Code
Meet the detective duo you'll never forget in this compulsive and charming debut crime novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 10 Apr 2025
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
MEET THE DETECTIVE DUO YOU'LL NEVER FORGET
'One of the best books I've read this year' ALEX GRAY
'An absorbingly unusual murder mystery' CHRIS BROOKMYRE
'Humorous and heart-breaking . . . I couldn't stop turning the page' EMILY CRITCHLEY
'Wry, compelling and ever so poignant' NAOMI KELSEY
'Readers will be cheering for the determined, if fragile, Margaret' LAURA SHEPPERSON
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89-year-old Margaret has lived on Garnon Crescent all her life, except for those few years she never talks about. She knows all the neighbours; their hopes, their heartbreaks.
Only recently, Margaret's memory isn't what it used to be. She is sure Barbara, her best friend and neighbour, told her something important. Something she was supposed to remember.
When Barbara is found dead, Margaret determines to recover her missing memory. She and her grandson James begin to investigate, but soon strange incidents occur in her home. Margaret's daughter thinks her memory is getting worse, but Margaret knows somebody wants her out of the way.
Because Margaret holds the key to solving this crime. If only she could remember where she put it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Hooton debuts with an affecting whodunit inspired by his relationship with his late grandmother, who had Alzheimer's. Widowed octogenarian Margaret Winterbottom has lived peacefully in the English cul-de-sac of Garnon Crescent for 60 years. Her stable existence is upended one morning when her neighbor and best friend of several decades, Barbara Jones, is found dead on her kitchen floor. The removal of Barbara's body sparks painful recollections for Margaret—namely of her husband's death—but other memories, including the details of her and Barbara's final encounter, prove more elusive. Through the fog of her failing cognition, Margaret remembers Barbara asking her to complete some sort of task, but she can't recall what it was. Frustrated and indignant, she resolves to investigate with the help of her teenage grandson, James. Hooton fashions the pair into convincing sleuths whose capabilities never strain credulity, and he wrings plenty of emotion from Margaret's struggles against the onset of dementia. Fans of Daniel Friedman's Buck Schatz series will love this.
