After She Drowned

1891. Victorian England. In the small country town of Croome where the local lead mine is losing money, the year begins with a tragic drowning.
Recently arrived in Croome the new vicar, Matthew Rolfe, has escaped the tragedy of his past and hopes to lose himself in the pleasant if almost unending task of compiling a comprehensive local Flora. But life in Croome won't be as uneventful as he'd thought, and he is gradually drawn into a tight tangle of forbidden love and passion involving two celibate young priests, both of whom have secrets, a 'modern woman' and her husband. A local girl falls pregnant and marries hastily. Another is told she has to marry a man twice her age.
When one of the girls goes missing Rolfe finds himself suspected of, at best, her disappearance and at worst her death.

Russell has been a published writer for some 25 years, is an ex-Chairman of the Crime Writers Association, and has written a dozen and a half novels in the crime and historical genres.
He has also published various non-fiction works, including 4 illustrated biographical encyclopaedias: Great British Fictional Detectives and its companion work, Great British Fictional Villains, followed by the Pocket Guide to Victorian Writers & Poets, and its companion, the Pocket Guide to Victorian Artists & Their Models.
His books include:
IN A TOWN NEAR YOU (Prospero)
THE CAPTAIN'S WARD (Prospero)
AFTER SHE DROWNED (Prospero)
STORIES I CAN'T TELL (with Maggie King) (Prospero)
THE NEWLY DISCOVERED DIARIES OF DOCTOR KRISTAL (Prospero)
EXIT 39 (Prospero)
RAFAEL'S GOLD (Prospero)
THE EXHIBITIONISTS (G-Press)
POCKET GUIDE TO VICTORIAN ARTISTS & MODELS (Pen & Sword)
POCKET GUIDE TO VICTORIAN WRITERS & POETS (Pen & Sword)
GREAT BRITISH FICTIONAL VILLAINS (Pen & Sword)
GREAT BRITISH FICTIONAL DETECTIVES (Pen & Sword)
THE MAUD ALLAN AFFAIR (Pen & Sword)
MY BULLET SWEETLY SINGS (Prospero)
REQUIEM FOR A DAUGHTER (Prospero)
NO ONE GETS HURT (Do Not Press)
PICK ANY TITLE (Do Not Press)
THE ANNEX (Five Star Mysteries)
PAINTING IN THE DARK (Do Not Press)
OH NO, NOT MY BABY (Do Not Press)
COUNT ME OUT (Serpent's Tail)
SLAUGHTER MUSIC (Alison & Busby)
PAYBACK (Gollancz)
DAYLIGHT (Gollancz)
UNDERGROUND (Gollancz)