Outside, Looking in - Hardcover

'KATHLEEN ROWNTREE IS A SHREWD OBSERVER OF VILLAGE LIFE' (The Daily Telegraph)

Aston Favell has many features of which it is justly proud – the fact that it came second in the Best Kept Village Competition, its listed houses and Mrs Bullivant's bring and buy coffee mornings. But now the village has a feature it is less happy about – a newly arrived Peeping Tom. First spying on a frisky couple at Ellwood's farm, then on the ladies exercise class in the village hall, the Peeping Tom sends a frisson of unease around the homes of Aston Favell.

To Kate Woolard the voyeur means more than unease. A young widow, slowly recovering from her husband's early death and fighting against the trauma of loss-induced fear, she is trying to resume her normal life, teaching in the nearby town and helping her friend, Will McLeod, with the tragic problems of caring for his wife who has early Alzheimer's. She could do without the additional stress of being spied upon.

Over the course of a few months, while the mysterious watcher watches, the tensions of life in a small community lead some villagers to fall out and others to form new liaisons while all keep wondering whether the motives and identity of their Peeping Tom will ever be revealed.

'KATHLEEN ROWNTREE NEVER FAILS TO HOLD THE READER'S INTEREST IN HER STORIES OF VILLAGE LIFE, WHICH SHE HAS THE HAPPY KNACK OF ENCAPSULATING PERFECTLY' (The Lady)