Hodgkiss and the Deadly SeanceHodgkiss and the Meaningful MessageHodgkiss and the Old Flame Hodgkiss doesn't miss a trick. Three new adventures of that cranky, obnoxious, insufferable but remarkably observant and astute senior citizen. A man who has accumulated incriminating information about members of the notoriously corrupt Kanundda Council dies in mysterious circumstances. Local legend had it that the man kept this information in a black box hidden in his house. Then his wife, who attends a seance to contact her newly departed husband, also dies mysteriously and the contents of the black box disappear. When Hodgkiss becomes involved he soon locates the contents of the box in a most unlikely place. When Kanundda Council's newly-elected mayor is found murdered at his desk there is an apparently meaningless jumble of letters left on the screen of his computer. But when Hodgkiss and his companion, Pat Strong, look into the matter Pat, quite by accident stumbles on the surprising solution that enables them to reveal a killer from the dead mayor's last desperate message. Travelling in the train one day Hodgkiss notices a young girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to a girl he knew years ago. After an awkward meeting they soon realise that there are dark secrets in the girl's family that must be explored and brought into the light no matter what the cost. 'Edgar Hodgkiss is the scourge of the Kanundda Council. Thanks to 'leaks' from within the council, he is awake up to all the rorts, the skullduggery and the point scoring ... on this heavily factionalised council. And when he exposes them in the letters to the editor column of the local free newspaper, The Star, the trouble starts: murder, blackmail, backstabbing - the lot. The stories move quickly, hold your interest and are so easy to read.' - Harvey Grennan, Local Government writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. 'The author's style is charming and clever, with plenty of clues and red herrings to make an enjoyable read for all whodunit fans.' - Robin Fleming, Acres Australia
