The Hiding Places

Author/Guide: Katherine Webb

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1922: Slaughter comes to Slaughterford

ISBN: 978-1409148562
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

Murder comes to the idyllic, sleepy village of Slaughterford one hot summer, and nothing is ever the same again.

The victim was a well known quiet man who lived at the heart of the community. He’s killed in his barn on a farm and Pudding Cartwright’s brother is suspected of the crime.

Knowing him to be innocent, she is determined to find out who is really responsible and why S laughterford has become indeed a place of slaughter

She is intrigued by newcomer Irene, who has married into the village, but is still considered an outsider. They are both determined to discover the identity of the killer in their midst.

Yet they are both unaware of just how deep the roots of the crime lie

Locations

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Travel Guide

Slaughterford

What an apt name for this mystery novel! It’s name suggests intrigue and murder and this novel brings you both. Slaugherford lies about 5 miles west of Chippenham, Wiltshire, at the crossing point of the Bybrook River.

It’s an old village and the mills in around the area are pieces of history – see more here: millsarchive.org/explore/mills/rag-mill-slaughterford

The author mentions in her acknowledgement that Slaughterford, its mills and geography and prominent buildings do exist, and have been recreated in the novel with some historical accuracy, the story and characters remain fictional. The only event which really occured was the explostion at the Rag Mill where three people were killed in 1867 including a ten year boy by the name of Vincent Watt.

Streetview Maps

A) Slaughterford Manor Farm

B) Slaugherford - Byford

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Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

It reads like a tapestry of a time gone by and each of the characters are woven into the scene with style – Charmingly stubborn Pudding, Mute Clemmie, Alistair and new wife Irene who remains an outsider, having escaped something from London. Then there’s the family everyone is told to avoid.

The murder takes place at least 100 pages into the story but it’s the build up and scene setting which brings the shocks. Each character is carefully crafted and lovely placed in the scenes, the reader gets to see Slaughterford – the early morning dew to the low lying sky at night – you can almost see the changes of the seasons as you turn the pages.

Pudding and Irene form a unique friendship and alliance (You’d just have to friends with a girl named Pudding!) and their search for the truth reveals a lot more about the village and its people than they ever could have imagined.

There’s so much to immerse yourself in here – and not just the fields of hay – the lazy village feel, the farming landscape and the stain of murder on a tranquil part of the British countryside.

Katherine lives up to her name and weaves a web of mystery and suspicion with vivid characters, a ramshackle location and a quietly bubbling plot.
Slaughterford – a village with secrets, shadows and more. The suggestion of witchery goings on, the suspicions which haunt the village, began to haunt me. Slaughterford is eerily recreated as a bygone mystery and Webb weaves her magic, pulling all the threads together so when, at the end, you step back the tapestry is even more impressive than you thought.