Hollow – Who Put Bella in the Wych-Elm?

Barry Rainsford
Works of: Fiction
Publisher(s): Sleeping Dogs

Britain 1943. In woods outside Birmingham the remains of a young woman are discovered inside the hollow of a tree. Despite her bizarre tomb and the distinctive features of the victim, no-one comes forward to identify her. Assumed to be a traveller or a vagrant, it is an investigation that during the Blitz no-one is interested in pursuing.

This discovery and the subsequent investigation of the case and the many rumours and myths that have over the years attached to it is the basis of this novel. Drawing on archived police files of the still unsolved murder, the story weaves an imaginative tale around actual events and characters of the era, transforming these elements into a compelling fictional crime-thriller in which the central figure of DC Alex Porter must choose between finding justice for the dead woman or exposing a conspiracy threatening the outcome of the war.