Helen Blackwell and the two develop a romantic relationship. Fortunately, he will have help, which comes in the shape of the village doctor.The investigation puts him close to Dr. Like most in England, Madden has yet to deal psychologically with the trauma of war. Even his appearance is suffused with psychic wounds: his face seems haunted and his eyes distant, a look that troubles his colleagues and subordinates. Madden himself is haunted by his war experiences and struggles with making sense of life as a result. The First World War ended in 1918 and many of the major characters in the novel are haunted by the deaths of loved ones on the front. Soon a connection to the war develops, when it becomes clear that the killings were done with a rifle bayonet. While it is initially thought that the murders are the work of a gang of thieves, Madden begins to suspect that they are looking for a lone, deranged killer. All she can do to communicate is draw what look like balloons, a clue to the killer’s identity. The only survivor, a little girl who hid under the bed, is unable to speak as a result of the trauma. Madden and Billy arrive at a traumatized village where five have been slaughtered. An unusually grisly murder of a family at Melling Lodge brings Scotland Yard Inspector John Madden and his assistant Billy Styles to the English countryside circa 1921, marking the beginning of a tense and suspense-filled reading experience in this neglected suspense thriller.
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