The Ladies of the Vale / Andrew Puckett

Tom Jones #4

by Andrew Puckett

It's not terribly unusual for patients in intensive care to die; after all they come in with the odds stacked heavily against them. But when seven patients who were on the road to recovery die unexpectedly in a mere six-week period nursing sister Jo Farewell begins to suspect that a serial killer might be responsible for their deaths in the Intensive Therapy Unit at Latchvale Hospital. Alone in her suspicions she is greeted with polite skepticism when she reports her misgivings to her boss and to the police. And then another patient dies without warning. Feeling frustrated and helpless, Jo is on her own until the arrival of Tom Jones, an unconventional Home Office Investigator with plans for an undercover operation. He is convinced that the deaths are not random. But what is the link? Dogged investigation reveals a possible plot involving organ donors, and then Jo and Tom find an even more sinister connection - one that leads into a nightmare of religious fanaticism, cold-blooded manipulation, and murder.

187 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

Andrew Puckett is a writer who feels he should experience for himself the trials imposed on his protagonists.
Examples are: Being locked in a freezer room at -40 degrees, Climbing a 1000 foot cliff from a rocky beach in the dark, Then encountering the Exmoor Beast (involuntary), Escaping from a prison ship (not actually incarcerated!), Falling into the sea from Durdle Dor (not quite), Escaping from a burning caravan etc.

Before that, he grew up on his parents' farms, the first in a remote part of Dorset, the second in the shadow of Salisbury cathedral.

He worked in a brewery, a chemical factory and Porton Germ Warfare Establishment, where he acquired a painful immunity to Plague, Anthrax and Smallpox (which did at least give him the idea for his novel Going Viral). He then worked in hospital labs in Taunton, London and finally Oxford, where he ran the microbiology department at Oxford Blood Transfusion Centre for fifteen years.

His first novel, Bloodstains, was derived from his experiences in the Blood Transfusion Service. He has subsequently published ten more, mostly on a medical theme. He now lives in Taunton with his wife and daughters.