The following quote is taken from the back cover of the novel: "Sheila Mallory is a middle-aged widow, a published expert on nineteenth-century novelists and is possessed of an insatiable curiosity. A long-standing friend asks for Sheila's help when his fiancée vanishes from her home and job in the West Country seaside town where Sheila has lived all her life. She
agrees somewhat reluctantly, but the mysterious circumstances of the disappearance soon intrigue her. Plumbing the depths of the coffee-morning circuit and the long memories
of many a pillar of the local community, combined with her own deductive powers, leads Sheila to a horrific discovery. Gone Away is an intriguing murder mystery in the classic tradition, and it is also an affectionate and perceptive novel about the lives and manners of a country town whose
tranquil routine is disturbed by violent death. Hazel Holt's début as a crime novelist promises much entertainment and satisfaction for lovers of the English detection novel." In this novel, Hazel Holt introduces many characters that appear in her subsequent novels and this novel also serves as an introduction to the life and customs of the fictional English town of Taviscombe where Sheila resides.
