When the Dead rise up — John Barber

A skeleton is found in a black plastic bag when a gas company trench is opened. The skeleton is of a Cavalier from the English Civil War.

Another skeleton is discovered amongst the water pipes servicing the town square fountain. It is that of a local villain who disappeared thirty years previously. Now the case has to be re-opened. The dead body is that of Ray Radford who was being sought for the murder of his business partner John Kennedy.

At the time Chief Inspector Steve Winwood was a fresh faced Constable drafted in to Rutherford and assigned to the team to track down Ray Radford. The case led to suspicions of corruption within the local police force and the imprisonment of a Council official for accepting bribes.

The discovery of Radford means that the mistakes made thirty years ago by the team have to be re-examined, old wounds re-opened, and a double murder now has to be investigated.

Many of the town's craftsmen and professionals lived in fear of Radford and few are willing to speak against him even now. Winwood gets no closer to a solution this time around and fears that his career and that of his superiors could be ended by the failures of the past and his inability to solve then now.

The forensic team working on the three hundred year old skeleton offer an unusual clue regarding the murders of Radford and Kennedy but not before another victim from the old days is attacked and left for dead.