Devil's Breath

Even though Max''s calling led him to become a vicar, his past life as a spy catches up with him . . .

Max receives the call for help when the body of glamorous film star Margot Browne is washed ashore at Monkslip-super-Mare. George, his former boss in the secret service, tells Max a former colleague, Patrice Logan, has asked MI5 for help - particularly, Max''s help.

It''s a perfect ''closed circle'' murder since victim Margot must have been killed by one of the group of actors, stylists, scriptwriters and other hangers-on aboard the yacht they were cruising on. Patrice suspects the yacht''s owner, a playboy film director she''s been keeping tabs on for smuggling, but Max isn''t so sure. Max and DCI Cotton interview the suspects as they lounge about on one of the luxury hotels dotting the waterfront. Tipped by the playboy director, Max uncovers the truth about the star''s life and death. But would Margot kill - or be killed - to keep her lurid past firmly in the past?

Praise for G.M. Malliet:

''Rarely have I read descriptions that have left me gasping, in both their hilarity and their painful truth.'' Louise Penny

''G.M. Malliet has brought the village cosy into the twenty first century.'' Charles Todd

''There are certain things you want in a village mystery: a pretty setting, a tasteful murder, an appealing sleuth... Malliet delivers all that.'' New York Times Book Review