Cold Waters

by P.M. Hubbard

Gifford knows that he must get away. London, his office job, his suburban home and his older wife have become unendurable. Then comes the answer in Callender, whom he meets in a pub and who offers him the job of handyman on a remote island. But once there doubts began to creep in. What has become of his predecessor, Mackie? Why has all the furniture been moved out of Mackie's cottage and into the one he now occupies? What secret lies inside the power house, which he has been forbidden to enter? There is some dreadful mystery behind the isolated community on the island, and he realises that his own safety depends on remaining ignorant of the truth: that Mackie disappeared because he knew too much . . .

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Philip Maitland Hubbard was an English writer. He was known principally for his crime and suspense stories although he wrote in other forms and genres as well, for example contributing short stories and poetry to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and articles, verse and parliamentary reports for Punch.

Hubbard was born in Reading in Berkshire, but was brought up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey and at Jesus College, Oxford, where in 1933 he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry with "Ovid among the Goths". He served with the Indian Civil Service from 1934 until its disbandment in 1947 upon Indian independence, after which he worked for the British Council and as Deputy Director of the National Union of Manufacturers. From 1960 until shortly before his death he worked as a freelance writer. He lived in Dorset and in Scotland, and was married with three children, although separated at his death.

P. M. Hubbard's main output was sixteen full-length novels for adults. These are typically suspense stories which have their settings in the countryside or coastline of England or Scotland (although one, The Custom of the Country, is set mainly in Pakistan). Most of the novels feature a male protagonist (although in some, such as Flush as May and The Quiet River, the protagonist is a woman) and characters who in general are middle-class, articulate and strong-willed. Most of the novels draw extensively on one or more of the author's interests and preoccupations including country pursuits, small-boat sailing, folk religion and the works of William Shakespeare.

Hubbard's novel High Tide was adapted for television and broadcast in 1980 as part of the UK ITV network's Armchair Thriller series.

He was described in his obituary in The Times as a "most imaginative and distinguished practitioner", writing with an "assurance and individuality of style and tone." He died on 17 March 1980.