Since leaving the army, Peter Blair has embraced a quiet life of solitude and sailing off the Salcombe coast. So it's an unpleasant shock when he stumbles across a body on the rocks off Prawle Point.
The case seems simple, if sad - the woman is identified as Edna Brown, a mousy London secretary whose hotel room contains a suicide note.
But all is not as it seems. Someone is very keen to keep Peter quiet, and before long he realises that if he wants to stay safe, it is up to him to solve the mystery of Edna's real identity - and who would kill to keep her quiet.
In this first Peter Blair mystery, master of 1970s crime J.R.L. Anderson spins an exhilarating yarn. Disguises and codes, drug smuggling and murder: Peter must use all his wits to make sure his first investigation is not also his last. JRL Anderson was an author of fourteen mystery stories and numerous works of non-fiction. He was a journalist at the Guardian for many years, before retiring to pursue his career as an author. He had a life-long interest in sailing and adventure, which results in many of his novels (as his original author biography from the 1970s puts it) ending 'with an exciting sea chase in a small boat'. Sailing and murder on the south coast: the first classic murder mystery starring the inimitable Colonel Peter Blair A classic English murder mystery from a master of 1970s crime The first of eight mysteries starring the popular detective Colonel Peter Blair Perfect for readers of Agatha Christie and Ian Samson (whose The Norfolk Mystery
was a recent selection for the Waterstones Book Club) Zaffre will be republishing Anderson's entire backlist of 14 novels
