MURDER BY THE RIVER USK is the third murder mystery by Pippa McCathie set in South Wales. Look out for the first, MURDER IN THE VALLEYS, and the second, MURDER AT THE OLD ABBEY.
A cold case warms up when an archaeological dig uncovers the remains of a student who went missing a decade previously. It was a missing person case that bugged ex-inspector Fabia Havard long after she left the force. Now she has been asked by DCI Matt Lambert, to aid the investigation. Caleb Morgan went missing whilst studying at a university campus near the ancient Roman city of Caerleon. Now, with his body finally found during an archaeological dig, partly exposed due to the riverbank subsiding after a flood, there is new evidence. It is clear he was murdered. The question facing the police is who did it and why? As they probe deeper into his background, suspicions arise around a local firebrand preacher, a boxer and the police themselves.