The Mill on the Shore is the seventh novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series.
Meg Morrissey will not believe that her husband James committed suicide. A famous naturalist and founder of Green Scenes, a pioneering magazine about environmental issues, James was in high spirits because he'd finally completed his long awaited autobiography. He didn't leave a suicide note. But even more suspiciously the record of his life's achievement, his magnum opus, has gone missing. Troubled, Meg calls in amateur sleuths George and Molly Palmer-Jones to investigate.
George and Molly's interviews soon reveal that the life of the Morrissey family in their beautiful converted mill is not as idyllic as people are led to believe. Nor are relations with James's ex-wife Cathy as friendly as Meg would like to make out. And, it emerges, James had fallen for another woman. Despite this, however, he appears to have had no enemies. Who could have wanted him dead?
The disappearance of the autobiography is highly suspicious and George and Molly wonder whether the motive for the killing is to be found within its pages. Could the famous environmentalist have uncovered a secret so damaging someone was prepared to kill for it? Or was it something in James Morrissey's private life that led to his death? George and Molly must try to fit together the missing pieces of information to reveal the cleverly suppressed motives which have driven someone to murder.
