Death in Deia

Deia is a small and idyllic village on the north-west coast of Mallorca, made famous by being the home of Robert Graves for much of his life, but subsequently becoming a magnet for artists, authors and film stars (and latterly a location in the BBC thriller series, The Night Manager). But in this fast moving crime novel, it also becomes the centrepiece for a series of murders connected to the embezzlement of an extraordinary £100 million fortune …

When the multi-millionaire Ken Stone dies, one of his three daughters inherits this massive estate and disappears to Mallorca. Several years later, Grant Morrison, a family friend goes in search of the missing daughter : however before he can discover the truth behind how this fortune had somehow eluded other members of the family, he comes to a very violent end. The discovery of a huge and dangerous web of deceit enveloping the whole family, follows Grant’s death. And his death is not the first …

The action reaches its denouement later the same year in a large Suffolk mansion when surviving members of the fractured family meet for a Christmas reunion. Late on Christmas Eve a most unexpected visitor also returns.

Author

DAVID COUBROUGH co-founded the specialist hospitality firm Portfolio Recruitment in the 1980s, and became its chief executive.

He has been company director and member of the board of governors of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and chairman of Bespoke Hotels.

His debut novel was Half a Pound of Tuppenny Rice (Peter Owen 2016).