The Water Clock - Jim Kelly

Jim Kelly, The Water Clock 2002, published in Penguin paperback 2003 (304 pages) Thursday 1 November: Provincial newspaper reporter Philip Dryden urgently needs a story, and the latest news is more promising than usual. The police have hauled a car out of the river with a mutilated corpse in the boot. A “Hunt for Fen Killer” is on. The next day, a second body is found in the roof guttering of Ely Cathedral. Lichen growth suggests it has been there for more than thirty years. So the police are dealing with two murders discovered within a very short space of time, and Dryden has a chance to get the most important story in the time he ...

Life must be pretty dull for a reporter if they happen to work for a local newspaper. The one in my area is full of stories about gardener’s huge parsnips and youths with hoodies. After weeks of endless weddings and funerals anything out of the ordinary must seem fantastic. What then if a thirty year old body turned up on the roof of the local church? Surely this would be an interesting curiosity, but not a case that could cause you any danger? Dryden is a journalist who has burnt out after spending too long on Fleet Street. He now works for a local paper on the Fens and looks after his wife who has been in a coma for two years after a car accident. ...