Golden Deed

When Frank Roscoe saves their young son from drowning, Sally and John Mellanby are understandably grateful, and offer their help to the ex-Army officer while he establishes himself in the local area. They invite him into their home, offer him a car and even an interest-free loan if he needs it. Slowly Roscoe’s manner changes and the family become trapped in a nightmare of fear and suspicion which threatens to destroy their tranquil way of life. A gripping and all too plausible story of blackmail and deceit set in the soft beauty of Somerset, The Golden Deed is a simple yet effective tale of a couple whose good intentions bring a treacherous force into their lives. ‘Has the priceless gift of telling a story with apparent simplicity, but unfailing grip’ Times Literary Supplement

Andrew Garve is the pen name of Paul Winterton (1908-2001). He was born in Leicester and educated at the Hulme Grammar School, Manchester and Purley County School, Surrey, after which he took a degree in Economics at London University. He was on the staff of The Economist for four years, and then worked for fourteen years for the London News Chronicle as reporter, leader writer and foreign correspondent. He was assigned to Moscow from 1942 to 1945, where he was also the correspondent of the BBC’s Overseas Service. After the war he turned to full-time writing of detective and adventure novels and produced more than forty-five books. His work was serialized, televised, broadcast, filmed and translated into some twenty languages. He is noted for his varied and unusual backgrounds – which have included Russia, newspaper offices, the West Indies, ocean sailing, the Australian outback, politics, mountaineering and forestry – and for never repeating a plot. Andrew Garve was a founder member and first joint secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association.