Blood Sinister (Bill Slider Mystery) (Paperback)

Fair enough. Be prepared, however, for a rollicking jaunt down a number of garden paths. Rollicking? Well, there's the usual complement of outrageous puns and, thanks be, we have the malapropish Supt. Polson back with us. "Let me have a stasis report" and "Our every movement will be scrutinised with a tooth-comb".

The reader should pay special attention to the chapter headings. Two of my favourites: "Three corns on a Fonteyn" and "Many are cold but few are frozen".

What sets this series apart from many of the modern so-called mysteries is the author's gift for characterization. Slider and his crew are ordinary folk with all of our own hopes, fears and feelings of guilt. Slider's concern for the troubled Atherton and his uncertainties about his future with Joanna are beautifully drawn and entirely believable. No super-heroes with giant egos here. No super-vllains, either.

Harrod-Eagles writes with a verisimilitude wich is all to rare these days. Furthermore, she plays fair with her readers. We don't have to put up with convenient last-minute coincidences or late chapter appearances of the suspects. This reader is particularly grateful for the author's use of the single point of view. Too many writers in this genre today find it convenient to get into the heads of several of their characters. So where's the mystery?

In BLOOD SINISTER, we have a proper mystery and a gem of a book .

Phoebe Agnew, journalist, and champion of the underdog is found strangled in her London flat.

The eight in the Bill Slider series is a complex tale of deception, secrets and hidden relationships. For whom, would Phoebe who in her early fifties, still lives a student bed-sit style life, cook an elaborate meal?. Sounds simple, but unravelling the style and life of Phoebe Agnew it poses quite a question.

Whilst, I guessed half way through the book what had happened, I couldn't quite work out how or why, and the last was the most interesting.

Apart from the murder, devotees of this series will find the relationships of the protagonist and his friends and family of equal interest. Atherton, that elegant hero is undergoing his own crisis, and Slider's relationship with Joanna, which I enjoy, is also about to be sorely tested.

Highly recommended.

Lizzie Hayes December 1999

Oh! By the by, I noted fourteen Porsonism's. Did anyone else count them?