The Drowning Ground

May 4, 2015
Something wicked is afoot in Marrison's tense debut, set in the quiet, picturesque villages of the English Cotswolds. Chief Insp. Guillermo Downes gets on the case after the discovery on a remote hillside of the body of a man with a pitchfork stuck in his throat. The victimâFrank Hurstâhad been leading a secluded life since the death of his second wife under suspicious circumstances five years earlier. Hurst's grown daughter, Rebecca, who left home after her step-mother's death, cannot be traced. The murder, coupled with intimations that the cold cases of two missing girls may be warming up, leaves Downes with his work cut out for him. Marrison, who was educated at the University of Edinburgh and now lives in Buenos Aires, expertly evokes a sense of place through descriptions of Cotswolds life. Downes's reminiscences of his Argentinian heritage lend color. The highly unusual denouement will catch most readers by surprise. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).

June 15, 2015
A grisly death reopens past crimes in the Cotswolds. When Frank Hurst's housekeeper found his wife's body in the swimming pool of Dashwood Manor, Hurst had an airtight alibi. He was off buying a pony for his teenage daughter, Rebecca. Instead of sympathizing, however, his neighbors all turn against him. So does Rebecca, who runs away. Five years later, someone stabs Hurst through the throat with a pitchfork. DCI Downes, who'd been present at the earlier crime scene, is shocked by both the savagery of the current murder and the change in the house, which is barred, boarded, and bricked up. Since the murder, the reclusive Hurst had been living in squalor-except for his daughter's immaculate room. The Argentine/English Downes knows something of solitude and alienation himself. In fact, Graves, his new sergeant, wonders how Downes got that scar and why he's called Shotgun. The university-educated Graves, suddenly transferred from Oxford to remote Moreton-in-the-Marsh, also knows what exile feels like. But he and Downes have more pressing concerns than homesickness when the manor catches fire shortly after Hurst's murder, and Downes risks his life to carry out the remains of a woman hidden under the rubble at the back of the house. Suspicions about Hurst and the two young girls who went missing seven years ago, a long-ago incident on an icy pond, and Rebecca's reasons for leaving her doting father push Downes even harder to solve a crime he still feels guilty for not pursuing years ago. Just when he thinks he's getting a handle on it, new evidence and a new murder make him change direction in an increasingly complex case. In his fiction debut, Marrison leaves just enough unexplained about his shrewd, moody protagonist to make you hope he'll return in a sequel.

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June 1, 2015
Chief Inspector Guillermo Downes is a soccer-loving Argentine living a solitary life in the Cotswolds. Still plagued by memories of what he lost back in South America, he throws himself into his work. His newest case is the murder of Frank Hurst, a man whose second wife drowned under suspicious circumstances 10 years ago and whose daughter has since grown up and left without a trace. Downes is an intriguing fish-out-of-water detectivea hardworking cop who assumes nothing about those he is investigating. Marrison's well-plotted mystery debut may appeal to fans of Elizabeth George and Peter Robinson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)