6.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Pages 124 pp (hardback) Originally published 1999 Preceded by The Breaker Publisher Pan Books | 3.4/5 Goodreads Language Dutch, later English ISBN 1-4050-4855-7 Followed by The Shape of Snakes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publication date 1999 (Netherlands), 31 July 2004 (Britain) Media type Print (Hardcover, Paperback) & Audio CD Genres Crime Fiction, Suspense, Mystery Minette Walters books The Shape of Snakes, Chickenfeed, Acid Row, Disordered Minds, The Devil's Feather | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Tinder Box (1999) is a crime novella by English writer Minette Walters. First published in Dutch as part of their annual "BookWeek" scheme, the story wasn't available in English until 2004.
Synopsis
Following the savage murders of Lavinia Fanshaw and her personal nurse, Dorothy Jenkins, in the small Hampshire village of Sowerbridge, Irish labourer Patrick O'Riordian is arrested for the crime, stirring up violent racial hatred from the other residents against his family. Friend and neighbour Siobhan Lavenham suspects that Patrick was the victim of an already prejudiced investigation, and defies her community so she can prove him innocent. However, after learning of some terrible secret's from the O'Riordian's past, she begins to question her loyalties.