Hung in the Balance(1990)

Roger Ormerod

Philipa Lowe, returning to England for her husband’s funeral after a four-year separation, anticipates a short, uncomplicated visit.

Graham’s estate should be insignificant, the legal hassle minimal — a quick signature, then back to her life in New York. But her optimism proves to be short-lived.

The first shock is to discover that the coroner’s inquest determined that Graham committed suicide…by driving himself off the edge of a slippery slope and into a quarry.

This she finds unacceptable; never mind that she’s sure Graham was constitutionally unlikely to kill himself — he can’t possibly have done so by getting in a car. It’s impossible.

In fact, the whole situation seems so highly improbable that she soon manages to persuade herself that he might even still be alive.

Doubt is cast on this hope by Detective Inspector Oliver Simpson, who seems determined to convince Philipa that Graham’s suicide is nothing more or less than it seems.

Yet as the unlikely pair work together, she begins to discover extraordinary details of Graham’s background that she never dreamed existed…and slowly finds herself beginning to recapture her former love for him.

But in the midst of her somewhat unorthodox investigation, Philipa accidentally stumbles upon another body — one that dramatically complicates the conclusions that had been drawn about Graham’s death.

Faced by a murder that cannot be murder and a suicide that cannot be suicide, she starts to question everything about both cases.

As the extent of Graham’s estate becomes known and more details come to light, the danger to Philipa grows…

Hung in the Balance is filled with ingenious plotting, original and unexpected situations, sharp dialogue and convincing characters which will keep you entertained until the very end.

Roger Ormerod (1920-2005) was a prolific writer of ingenious and densely plotted crime novels - some 35 in all - which were published in the UK and the USA. He lived in Wolverhampton and amongst other things worked as a civil servant and as a Social Security inspector – backgrounds which he made full use of in his fiction, as he did with his hobbies of painting and photography.