A car speeds down a road between miles of marshes and estuary flats, its passenger a young woman named Agnes—hands bloodied, number with fear, her world turned upside down.
Meanwhile, the news of a girl found dead on the marsh is spreading round the local area, panic following in its wake. A masterpiece of suspense, Mary Kelly's 1962 novel follows Agnes as she casts her mind back through the past few days to find the links between her husband, his friends, a mysterious stranger new to the village, and a case of unexplained death.
Mary Kelly (1927-2017) was a pen name of Mary Theresa Coolican, an English crime writer best known for the Inspector Brett Nightingale series and her Gold Dagger Award-winning novel The Spoilt Kill. The Christmas Egg, first published in 1958, is a fine example of her unique and unconventional mystery writing.