The Tinder Box (novella)

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The Tinder Box

Author	Minette Walters
Country	United Kingdom
Language	Dutch, later English
Genre(s)	Crime / Mystery novel
Publisher	Pan Books
Publication date	1999 (Netherlands), July 31 2004 (Britain)
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback) & Audio CD
Pages	124 pp (hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 1405048557
Preceded by	The Breaker
Followed by	The Shape of Snakes

The Tinder Box is a 1999 novella by British mystery novelist Minette Walters. The novella was originally published in Dutch, as part of their annual "BookWeek" whereby an author is commissioned to write a novella that will be given away with each book purchase. The Tinder Box was published in English in 2004.

[edit] Plot summary

The book's about a young Irish Patrick O'Riordan who's suspected of killing his old neighbours Lavinia Fanshaw (93) and her live-in nurse Dorothy Jenkins (67). Just a few persons don't believe that he killed the two old women: First of all Patrick's family members and Siobhan Lavenham a close friend who's Irish as well. The family members are Liam (his right arm doesn't work properly after an attack of Patrick) and Bridey (she's bound to a wheel chair). The suspicion's confirmed when the police finds the old lady's jewellery in O'Riordan's house. The anti-Irish mood increases and one night the house of the O'Riordans catches fire. Everyone is suspicious. At the same moment Patrick's cousin Rosheen disappears and her employee Siobhan Lavenahm is afraid the young girl who works as a nanny at her cottage got killed by the fire. Investigations and conversations follow and in the end the result's really astonishing. Lavinia Fanshaw and her nurse Dorothy Jenkins got killed by Rosheen who had a liaison with Fanshaw's grandson. He wanted to get the heir and so he convinced the Irish girl to assassinate the granny. The mistake was to foist the murder on Patrick. His parents decided to kill Rosheen. Normally they wouldn't have been able to commit the crime and so the investigators believe that neither Liam's arm is inoperable nor that Bridey's bound to a wheel chair. The old guys had to set a blaze to destroy evidences like the fingerprints of Liam's right hand and the footprints of Bridey. Whether the death of Rosheen was kind of self-protection as Bridey wants the policemen to believe or if it was committed in cold blood? You'll never know ..., the one and only thing you can be sure of is that Patrick is innocent.