GRAYSWOOD wine presenter and cheesemaker Francis Gimblett has now served up a time-shift thriller that whisks readers from the gallows of Hindhead in 1682 to Haslemere in the present day.

Francis, who spent five years researching the local area for his murder mystery Misfit, was kept busy on Saturday signing copies at Haslemere Bookshop.

Describing the inspiration for ‘Misfit’, Francis told The Herald: “At first the idea was to just to have an understanding of the town I’d come to call home when I moved here in the 1990s.

“Then the place began to develop layers and take on a life that I felt an urge to write about.

“I suppose it was the buildings in particular. I tried to imagine them when new, and what they would have witnessed.”