The Book of Life

Ben Davies a director of the Fordhamton Corinthian Football Club is found in the ground floor supporters bar with his throat cut. The other nine directors were already at the Club for an Emergency General Meeting and gathered on the first floor in the boardroom.

The reason for the EGM was to consider an offer from Topper Supermarkets for the purchase of the ground as they wish to expand. The Club was heavily in debt to Ben Davies and could not repay it. The offer from Topper would mean that the debt could be repaid but also meant that any one or more of the remaining nine directors had a motive to kill Davies for the fortuitous windfall.

Recently promoted to Chief Inspector Steve Winwood begins his investigation by loooking into Davies background. He finds nothing untoward and turns his attention to the directors and the Trust that governs the Club.

He soon discovers that the founder of Rutherford Corinthian Football Club was considered insane by the residents of the town and had established the Trust and rules for the running of the Club. Some were quite bizarre and true to the Corinthinian ideal such as the goalkeeper standing aside for penalty kicks.

More important to the case was the appointment of eleven directors, all male and the gifts and financial help given to anyone who played for the Club either past or present.

As he digs deeper into the rules suspicion falls not just on the directors who are all established members of Rutherford society but the Chairman of the Redbourne Brewery, Jonathan Redbourne himself.

To solve this case Winwood has to revisit the murder at the Fleetwood Arms Hotel. Everything has to be revalued and the conspiracy slowly unwinds until the solution is found amidst the very eccentric and unique way that the Trust was set up.

More in the Inspector Winwood series here.

For background on Rutherford and D.I.Winwood see here.