It's 1970, which means that the residents of Atbara Avenue, against all odds, have pottered their way into a new decade; one that will bring decimalisation, miners' strikes, punk rockers, and platform shoes. These good people are not, however, afraid. As long as they have enough bunting to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee and The Archers reign in Ambridge, such era-defining events will roll over them like passing clouds, high up and far away.

Not that life on the Avenue is entirely dull. There are new arrivals! The Savage-Roth sisters have moved into the Laurels, and vicar's wife Deirdre is helping them with the loan of her keenest Girl Guide, Susan, who will learn all sorts of things from the elderly pair… Perhaps the locals should be relieved to wave farewell to the last ten years and start looking forward to more positive times to come. What could possibly go wrong now?



Dr Gay Marris is a retired research scientist. Her career focused on insect ecology, parasites and honey bee health. Her first novel, The Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder, set in the suburbs of the deceptively dangerous suburbs of 1960s London, where she grew up and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey First Novel Prize. Her second novel, The Beasts of the Black Loch, is the first in the Natural History of Murder series. Gay now lives in York with her husband, a cat and a tortoise.