Sergeant Penny's Dilemma

Sergeant Penny was a jovial 40-something policeman in Cornwall. Dedicated to upholding the law, he took his position very seriously, but only up to a point. His one failing was that he sympathized with the wrecking gangs, who earned their living plundering wrecks around local beaches in spells of rough weather. Penny’s mentor and lifelong friend was Doctor Mays. Kate Kessell was another of Penny’s associates. Kate was pregnant with her seventh child when she survived the cholera pandemic of 1849 that took her six children and her husband. It was Kate who discovered the body of a young woman one foggy night as she was on her way home after visiting her pregnant daughter. The victim’s half-naked body was sprawled on the low wall of a bridge over the River Amble – with a fisherman’s knife protruding from her chest. This was Penny’s first serious case since becoming a policeman, one that would take all his detection skills to unravel a seemingly perfect crime.