Imagine waking every morning, a stranger inside your head, telling you to kill people before bedtime.

Last thing at night, the bowling club president, Barnabus Reynolds, is busy cashing up, preparing to go home. Everyone else has gone. He believes he is alone; but is he?

At nine the next morning, the caretaker opens up to find Barnabus splayed out on his office floor, dead and gone. There is no blood to be seen, no cuts, no sign of any injury, and no murder weapon. Could it have been a heart attack or stroke?

He checks the top drawer for yesterday’s takings and finds nothing. Could it have been a robbery? How did the widely loved Barnabus meet his end? The caretaker is baffled and upset in equal measure, as he makes a call, summoning the emergency services.

“Crying Roses” is the fifteenth book in the Inspector Walter Darriteau series, another chunky standalone novel, and one to keep any reader interested, featuring strong characters capable of jumping straight into the reader’s mind.