The Dying Light

'Sister Agnes is a fascinating and complicated woman.' Val McDermid Young and fiercely independent, Sister Agnes Bourdillon has never felt the need of a wimple to express her spirituality. But her strength is tested by her secondment to Silworth, a South London women's prison. She does, however, find the work compelling, as she attempts to negotiate the network of bullies and victims, loyalties and hatreds, prisoners and jailers, searching to understand the often violent histories that lie behind each woman. Then the father of Cally Fisher, one of the most turbulent inmates, is shot dead. The chief suspect is Cally's boyfriend. Reminded unnervingly of how she is losing her own mother, who is rapidly retreating from reality in a French nursing home, Agnes finds that she too has become entangled in a dark world that stretches further than the prison walls... 'The Dying Light' is one of Alison Joseph's great mysteries which has the reader turning the page as Agnes gets embroiled in a crime which threatens her own being. Praise for Alison Joseph 'Clever and intriguing - a must for all Agatha Christie fans' - Peter James 'Christie herself is the fulcrum of this highly diverting piece, delivered with all the quirky skill that is Joseph's trademark.' - Barry Forshaw, Crime Time Alison Joseph is a London-based crime writer and radio dramatist. She is the author of the series of novels featuring Sister Agnes, a contemporary detective nun based in South London, and has written numerous plays for radio, including the adaptations of Simenon's Inspector Maigret series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is currently chair of the Crime Writers Association.