CONSCIENCE OF SERGEANT CLUFF, THE

by Sands, Leslie

The latest play from the author of Cat’s Cradle and Something to Hide is set in an isolated farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors, where an investigation is underway following the suspicious death of Tom Norton, a local farmer who died in mysterious circumstances. Sergeant Caleb Cluff, now retired from the service and living in the village but unable to put his investigative mind at rest, is reluctantly drawn into the ensuing tangle of accusations and recriminations due to his relationship with the Norton family and in particular with Norton’s widow, Nell. Her daughter Kathleen has encouraged village gossip by her lack of compassion for her father’s death and, taunted by her cousin Ritchie, Kathleen soon comes to believe that Cluff may indeed be her real father. When Ritchie is discovered drowned in a local canal in questionable circumstances, Cluff battles wits with the local CID to solve both puzzles as the misery and grief from a lifetime of self-doubt and guilt is brought explosively to the surface in this very poignant and gripping drama.