Murder by Twin: The Bridge connection (The Short Murder)

Isobel and Lilian Hardcastle are two well-respected and extremely wealthy, fifty-year-old identical twins. They share a beguiling beauty and allure with flowing blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Behind this mask of respectability, they are ruthless mass murderers who have carried out a campaign of kidnapping, extortion, torture and murder over a period of more than twenty years from their old Victorian house on the edge of a quiet rural village. Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Hickson is appointed by the Chief Constables of ten forces across the North and the Midlands to head a task force with the aim of solving the huge number of cold cases that has accumulated over the decades. No bodies have ever been found but more than sixty vulnerable, recently widowed, wealthy and often self-made, men in the age range of 45 to 55 have disappeared. In the period following their disappearance, the men's assets have been stripped and converted into cash that has disappeared into offshore bank accounts by way of a series of accounts in fictitious names. The task force closes in on what they assume to be a single female perpetrator with a dual personality only to discover that they are dealing with twins, one of whom displays the mental age of a ten-year-old girl and who is prone to acts of extreme violence. This psychopathic sibling is controlled by her sister by encouraging her to play the game of Bridge which she loves with the passion of a small child. The twins succeed in having their Bridge opponents from the Village Hall Bridge Club come and live at their house and a new situation settles on the Hardcastle household. Unfortunately for the sisters and their newly-acquired guests and servants, the police task force closes in and more bodies are pitched down an old well at the bottom of the property to join the other victims of the earlier violence of the murderous twins. The case comes to a head when the police make astounding discoveries at the house and on the property and local spelunkers come upon the bodies of two of their victims.

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