Where Old Bones Lie - Tapa dura

Ingeniously plotted and full of vividly drawn characters, Where Old Bones Lie is Ann Granger's fifth crime novel featuring the exciting sleuthing team of Alan Markby and Meredith Mitchell.
What do you do when you think your ex-lover murdered his wife? That's the question Ursula Gretton, an archaeologist working on an ancient Saxon burial ground on Bamford Hill, puts to Meredith Mitchell in the hope that Meredith's friendship with Cotswold chief inspector Alan Markby might cast some light on her dilemma. To Meredith's irritation, Markby is dismissive of Ursula's suspicions concerning the disappearance of Dan Wollard's wife - that is, until a woman's body is found in the garbage dump near the site Wollard and Ursula have been excavating.
The archaeologists aren't the only ones disturbing the peace of the remote windswept hill. Much to the fury of the local landowners, the taciturn and truculent Felstons, a band of New Age hippies has set up camp on the hill, only to disappear at dawn the day after the discovery of the body. Markby is faced with a tangle of conflicting clues, suspects and possible witnesses - including Meredith Mitchell herself. And when a second body is found it is clear the web is growing ever more complex - and destructive.