The Mercies of Gwenda Wade

"One, two, three, four strikes, each landing in quick succession, the sound of cracking bones accompanied every body jerk as the wrench made fatal contact. Blood spatters sprayed Myrtle's face as the limbs and torso slumped heavily back on the floor between exchanges, she didn't even blink, her eyes shone with the frenzied effort of attack."

As the bodies pile up across the flat lands of the Norfolk Fens with no discernable link between the victims up and coming DCI Henrietta Trenchard is tasked with the swift capture of the killer. With a secret investigation of her own, Hettie Trenchard is somewhat distracted as she tries to combine a murder investigation with finding her birth mother.

Gwenda Wade, vicar's daughter, quiet and dutiful, self-confessed coward and not at all the type of woman to stand up to an impulsive murderer has to chose between the Commandments, thou shalt not kill and honour thy father and mother. Tasked with caring for her vainglorious sister Myrtle, Gwenda suspects her sibling capable of murder; now she is no longer in doubt.

Can the two women stop Myrtle; do they want to?