Death Before Wicket

Mick Strike is doing what he does best – playing sport. It’s his primary obsession, dominating his life. He lives, breathes, eats and sleeps sport. It’s also his way of relaxing. Of getting away from the pressures of his job, and his life. He’s been doing a lot of getting away lately. Recently separated from his wife, he’s swapped the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life for the relative peace and quiet of the Cambridgeshire countryside. But, even in such idyllic surroundings, he can’t get away from murder! George Evans was Mick’s team-mate and batting partner and, when he’s found brutally murdered in the middle of a match, suspicions among the team naturally fall on the newcomer – none other than Mick Strike himself. He soon clears up this misconception, however - revealing himself to be a police inspector and therefore an unlikely murderer - and sets about trying to solve the case. But it’s quickly apparent that he has a real problem – he has way too many suspects! During his initial investigations Mick discovers that our George was a deeply unpopular man. A philanderer and womaniser, who ruled his family with a rod of iron. He was also not above dirty tricks in his business dealings and had been a bully all his life. To top it all, George had an annoying habit of running people out! It seems that, in this case – Mick’s first for his new employers - there’s certainly no lack of motives for murder. To try and bring some method to the madness and to narrow down his long list of suspects, he draws up a First Eleven of likely culprits. But none of this ‘Team’ really fits the bill, in Mick’s mind. Oh, every one of them has motive and opportunity, and nearly all have next to no alibi for the time when the crime was committed. But he simply doesn’t fancy any of them as a murderer. When intuition begins to lead Inspector strike in a different direction, a second murder takes place and now Mick has to delve back into the past to find the connection between the two victims, the reasons for their deaths and the identity of their killer.