- Hardcover: 509 pages
- Publisher: Magna Large Print Books; Large Print edition edition (April 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0750507756
- ISBN-13: 978-0750507752
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
1st in a series of crime novels feauturing private eye Laura Principal. Laura and Helen share a weekend retreat in Norfolk and are reluctant to disturb the close friendship and sense of security they have enjoyed for many years. So when Helen suggests inviting the eager to please but unconventional Monica to share the cottage, Laura is uneasy. Then Monica is brutally murdered, and Laura finds herself drawn into an investigation which puts her own life in danger. As she unravels the secrets of Monica's life, the killer gets closer and closer and when Laura uncovers the final mystery, she realises that it is not only her own life that is threatened.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Michelle Spring was raised on Vancouver Island. She worked for many years as an academic in Cambridge where she lives with her husband and their two children. She has written several academic books. This is her fifth novel.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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I only drive fast when I am not in a hurry. Read the first page
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I only drive fast when I am not in a hurry. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has got a lot, Michelle Spring is a good writer and knows how to make you turn the page, even at that tricky stage at the beginning of a series where she's got to introduce her main characters for the first time, Laura Principal, academic turned historian is likeable and pleasingly human, the relationship between Laura and Helen the co-owners of the cottage who need someone to help them with the costs is very convincing. Then Laura finds her new housemate brutally murdered and the story really kicks off.
But the problem is -all stories of this type where you've got what's basically an amateur, whether or not they're a private detective, who manage to do what the police don't and solve the crime depend on a mixture of really good story telling and the ability to make the reader suspend their disbelief that this or that could really happen, the police chief in charge could really be that stupid, that perhaps there has been one co-incidence too many, but if the writer makes an obvious error the whole narrative structure collapses and the reader starts questioning everything. This is what happened when Laura gets her gun out of the back of her car. According to the author notes Michelle Spring isn't British by birth but she's lived in England for many years so surely she must know something about our gun laws and realises that there is no way Laura would carry a handgun in the back of her car. After that I started seeing every single implausibility in the story (and of course there are some, there always are in crime novels) which was a shame because it had been really good up until then and the gun didn't even play a vital role. I'm not sure if I'll be reading the next one.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
I like the author's penchant for detail.
26 July 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Finally! A mystery that offers fine-hewn details, setting an ambience without getting too carried away or too cute. The characters are defined with a light touch, too. I'm a writer, too, and I know discipline when I see it - Michelle Spring writes with restraint, all the while crafting a believable and captivating mystery. I liked this book so much - and I have read a lot of mysteries - that I bought Spring's Nights in White Satin before I'd even finished the first Laura Principal mystery. This is one likable investigator.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
un-put-down-able!
13 Mar 2006
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I bought this when it was first out in paper in the UK, and liked it well enough to keep. Last week I was scanning the shelves for something put-down-able to reading while grading midterms, and pulled _Every Breath You Take_ off the shelf. Wow, did I make a mistake.
Not only could I _not_ put down the stalker plot, even the second time around, but the characters are so well crafted that they grip the attention as firmly as if they are in the room with you. Every woman wants a friendship like the one Laura and Helen have built, a refuge as real as the cottage they share, but as open to other people as is the hearth they share with a wonderful variety of secondary characters.
Laura's work and love partner, Sonny, is an almost too-good-to-be-true sensitive new age guy, but the author keeps his page-time to a minimum, thus preserving his credibility. The people whom Laura meets in the course of the investigation are all wonderfully varied -- quirky or steady or fragile or pompous. Angel, a character who has a key minor role, is exquisitely drawn and given a depth and complexity of feeling that never topples into stereotype or bathos.
Spring does places particularly well. Her London, Cambridge, Norfolk settings all ring true in different ways, all open windows with real views, sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere that the reader can move into. Her insights into college departmental politics are also wickedly realistic.
And yes, it is frightening. It's a hard balance to get a capable woman to feel at risk, but with Laura Principal, Spring manages to make the danger real without making the woman either a cowering victim or a risk-taking idiot. The plot is brisk, believable, and packed with enough twists to keep a reader from feeling comfortable. You can see the end coming before either Laura or the police get there, but that simply increases the tension for the reader.
Buy it and keep it to read again!
Not only could I _not_ put down the stalker plot, even the second time around, but the characters are so well crafted that they grip the attention as firmly as if they are in the room with you. Every woman wants a friendship like the one Laura and Helen have built, a refuge as real as the cottage they share, but as open to other people as is the hearth they share with a wonderful variety of secondary characters.
Laura's work and love partner, Sonny, is an almost too-good-to-be-true sensitive new age guy, but the author keeps his page-time to a minimum, thus preserving his credibility. The people whom Laura meets in the course of the investigation are all wonderfully varied -- quirky or steady or fragile or pompous. Angel, a character who has a key minor role, is exquisitely drawn and given a depth and complexity of feeling that never topples into stereotype or bathos.
Spring does places particularly well. Her London, Cambridge, Norfolk settings all ring true in different ways, all open windows with real views, sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere that the reader can move into. Her insights into college departmental politics are also wickedly realistic.
And yes, it is frightening. It's a hard balance to get a capable woman to feel at risk, but with Laura Principal, Spring manages to make the danger real without making the woman either a cowering victim or a risk-taking idiot. The plot is brisk, believable, and packed with enough twists to keep a reader from feeling comfortable. You can see the end coming before either Laura or the police get there, but that simply increases the tension for the reader.
Buy it and keep it to read again!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Lots of great characters
11 Aug 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The back of the book says: London-based P.I. Laura Principal and her old college friend Helen Cochrane love Wildfell cottage, their weekend retreat on the Norfolk coast. But lately the upkeep has been a burden. A friend recommends an art teacher, Monica Harcourt, to share the expenses- yet when they meet, Laura is uncomfortable with Monica, whose sunny personality is overshadowed by unexplained bouts of fearfulness. Laura discovers too late why Monica was so afraid. Someone was stalking her- someone who left her slashed and bludgeoned body in her Cambridge flat. Flooded with shock, grief, and guilt, Laura feels compelled to investigate, despite protests from her business and personal partner Sonny Mendlowitz. But as she narrows down her list of suspects, the killer is invading Wildfell, intent on turning Helen and Laura's sanctuary into a deathtrap.
The book has a lot of interesting characters and fun secondary plots. The book seemed very "English" to me, with all of the characters being educated and well spoken, even the people in jail. I do recommend this book because it was an intriguing read. The only problem I found was that it was a tad slow and a bit descriptive of the settings for me. But that could be because it is the first book of the series.
The book has a lot of interesting characters and fun secondary plots. The book seemed very "English" to me, with all of the characters being educated and well spoken, even the people in jail. I do recommend this book because it was an intriguing read. The only problem I found was that it was a tad slow and a bit descriptive of the settings for me. But that could be because it is the first book of the series.
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