A Worm of Doubt

A Worm of Doubt by M.R.D. Meek 1990 Worldwide Mystery Mystery

Lennox Kemp is a lawyer who worked as a private investigator after losing his license to practice law for stealing from the firm he worked for in order to pay his wife’s gambling debts. He is now a confirmed bachelor.

Frelis Lorimer wants to hire him. Her husband, David, is cheating on her with his secretary, Eileen Dolan, and she wants him to do something about her, hinting at something darker as she clumsily tries to blackmail him over his past history.

Her refuses her offer but sets up the sequence of events that follow. Lennox meets David, a nice chap, Eileen, who wants to get ahead, and her cousins, who because of their Irish roots are under suspicion of doing no good. The setting is Newtown, England and class plays a big part of good guys and bad guys classification.

Eileen is found dead in a Jacuzzi at the hotel where she was to meet David, but he claims his car was stuck in a snow drift. The reader knows Frelis was close enough to walk to the hotel. The police investigate but can’t pin the murder on anyone.

The hotel owner Ronnie visits David at his Tollhouse (gas station) and says he has a note that he left at the hotel for Eileen the night she was killed. They fight but he goes to pick up his son Alistair. Ronnie is found beaten to death in the Tollhouse after an anonymous caller warns the police of the crime.

David is arrested and Frelis hires Lennox to defend him. This allows him to question everyone and line up suspects. Lennox and the reader must sort out what is the truth from the lies.

Meek give the reader plenty of guilty characters to choose from for the murders and adds several twists. The ending is nail biting as the stakes are raised to save a life.

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