The Cricket Club Murders — John Barber

The first victim was a retired schoolteacher with a wooden stake through his heart. The second was an attractive female student who had a swallowed a deadly silver bullet cocktail. Detective Inspector Steve Winwood did not believe in vampires, werewolves or the supernatural. Then the bank manager was poisoned with garlic and the odds on a vampire slayer running amok in Rutherford began to take hold. The victims had a connection with the cricket club, the letter ‘c' seemed to mean something and Winwood's best friend Brian Bennett, the local newspaper editor was convinced that a serial killer was basing his killing spree on a hand of Happy Families. Winwood's attention shifted between the owner of a local computer software company, a smart talking banker and the Rutherford Photographic Society. Then a fourth body turned up who was certainly not what they seemed and Winwood got his first break.