Lessons in Murder (Detective Inspector Carol Ashton Series)
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Product Description
When a teacher - the son of a former Premier of New South Wales - is murdered at a Northern Beaches Sydney school, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is assigned to the case. But even she does not bank on falling in love with her chief suspect, a charming, attractive teacher named Sybil.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
On a hot summer day at Bellwhether High School in Sydney, Australia, teacher Bill Pagett lies murdered, the hole in his head accomplished with neat efficiency by a Black & Decker drill.
Detective Inspector Carol Ashton investigates, bringing with her a formidable reputation for competence. She soon uncovers tangled relationships and motives for murder among the six teaching staff, along with a maze of malicious anonymous letters and threatening phone calls. And then there is yet another corpse...
Carol's investigation is further complicated by the flashfire attraction between herself and prime suspect Sybil Quade. Carol fights her desire, knowing its potential to compromise her investigation. Nor does Sybil welcome an "unnatural" obesession with the alluring woman who is ineorably gathering the evidence to convict her of multiple murder..
A fine start. As always from Claire McNab it is a well-written and engaging story. Look forward to the next one in the series.
Detective Inspector Carol Ashton investigates, bringing with her a formidable reputation for competence. She soon uncovers tangled relationships and motives for murder among the six teaching staff, along with a maze of malicious anonymous letters and threatening phone calls. And then there is yet another corpse...
Carol's investigation is further complicated by the flashfire attraction between herself and prime suspect Sybil Quade. Carol fights her desire, knowing its potential to compromise her investigation. Nor does Sybil welcome an "unnatural" obesession with the alluring woman who is ineorably gathering the evidence to convict her of multiple murder..
A fine start. As always from Claire McNab it is a well-written and engaging story. Look forward to the next one in the series.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
In retrospect
7 May 2001
Format:Paperback
Lessons in Murder is Claire McNab's first novel. Set in a Sydney High School, it revolves around the murder of the son of a prominent politician, who is found in his classroom with a drill embedded in his head. Enter Detective Inspector Carol Ashton, described as a cool blonde with a spectacular career. She is also spectacularly closeted, maintaining a rigid division between her work and personal life that even her partner, Sergeant Mark Bourke, cannot break through. This barrier begins to crumble, however, when she meets Sybil Quade, who is suspiciously linked to the murder victim. As further deaths occur, accompanied by threatening letters and phone calls, Sybil becomes the prime suspect and Carol struggles with her growing attraction toward her. Although entertaining enough, Lessons in Murder, is the source of many irritations. Ashton's introspective self-pity, her romantic pining for Sybil, and Sybil's inability to resist the domineering attentions of Terry Clarke, are annoying distractions from the narrative. The climax is cliched, which is not surprising given that this novel faithfully follows (if not establishes) the conventions of lesbian detective fiction. Murder, an emotionally repressed detective, and romance between the two main characters are all now standard features of this genre. When first published, this novel may have been exciting and unique, but twelve years on, it has been superceded by the work of other authors.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Mystery and Romance
14 Mar 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lessons in Murder is not a perfect book by any means, but it's still one that I really like. I just finished re-reading it.
The writing is a little awkward in places with some odd word choices, indicative of McNab being a relatively new author at the time this was written. (I don't mean differences between Australian and American English, which are also present, since I enjoy that aspect.) McNab chose to use third person omniscient POV for the narration and I'm not convinced it worked well for this type of book. Though it does have the advantage of providing multiple points of view throughout the novel.
The romance element is fairly strong, on an almost equal footing with the mystery in terms of importance. I like the romance sub-plot a great deal, and yet it's lacking in the emotional immediacy and intimacy that one would expect if this had been a romance novel instead of a mystery. I think some of that is also due to the omniscient POV choice.
Lessons in Murder introduces an intriguing and strong protagonist. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is smart, calm, cool, collected, beautiful, and highly successful at her job. Yet this book only scratches the surface of who she really is, probably because as another reviewer pointed out, there wasn't much room for extensive character development in such a short book which is so tightly focused.
What McNab does very well in this book is craft a classic murder mystery. There are several suspects, a lot of people keeping secrets, and a lot of possible motives, some obvious and some hidden. Ashton, and her partner Bourke, painstakingly interview numerous people and put together the evidence from a trail of clues. McNab does a good job of keeping the reader guessing and re-guessing well into the book, and does so in a way that doesn't insult the reader by using gimmicky red herrings or cheap deus ex machina tricks.
It's probably worth noting that Lessons in Murder was originally published in 1988 and that context is important in terms of some of the attitudes of the characters and where mystery fiction was at that time, compared to now.
I recommend Lessons in Murder as a solid, quick mystery read.
KINDLE NOTE: The formatting is very basic, but without any glaring flaws.
The writing is a little awkward in places with some odd word choices, indicative of McNab being a relatively new author at the time this was written. (I don't mean differences between Australian and American English, which are also present, since I enjoy that aspect.) McNab chose to use third person omniscient POV for the narration and I'm not convinced it worked well for this type of book. Though it does have the advantage of providing multiple points of view throughout the novel.
The romance element is fairly strong, on an almost equal footing with the mystery in terms of importance. I like the romance sub-plot a great deal, and yet it's lacking in the emotional immediacy and intimacy that one would expect if this had been a romance novel instead of a mystery. I think some of that is also due to the omniscient POV choice.
Lessons in Murder introduces an intriguing and strong protagonist. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is smart, calm, cool, collected, beautiful, and highly successful at her job. Yet this book only scratches the surface of who she really is, probably because as another reviewer pointed out, there wasn't much room for extensive character development in such a short book which is so tightly focused.
What McNab does very well in this book is craft a classic murder mystery. There are several suspects, a lot of people keeping secrets, and a lot of possible motives, some obvious and some hidden. Ashton, and her partner Bourke, painstakingly interview numerous people and put together the evidence from a trail of clues. McNab does a good job of keeping the reader guessing and re-guessing well into the book, and does so in a way that doesn't insult the reader by using gimmicky red herrings or cheap deus ex machina tricks.
It's probably worth noting that Lessons in Murder was originally published in 1988 and that context is important in terms of some of the attitudes of the characters and where mystery fiction was at that time, compared to now.
I recommend Lessons in Murder as a solid, quick mystery read.
KINDLE NOTE: The formatting is very basic, but without any glaring flaws.
Good detective work, but what about character development?
17 July 2002
Format:Paperback
First of all, I did enjoy reading this book. Claire McNab's Carol Ashton is a good detective and the mysterious death of a teacher killed by a Black and Decker power drill is a captivating plot. But at the same time I was a little disappointed at what I determined to be a lack of character development for the two main characters: Carol and Sybil. What makes them tick as a human being? What are their fears and ambitions? Maybe this can be attributed to the minimal numbers of pages as more attention was paid to the mystery itself? Who knows. This book(let) is a short one and definately a fast read. Under normal circumstances I don't consider myself to be a fast reader but I finished in two sittings.
These flaws won't deter me from reading other books in this series. Actually tonight I'm beginning the second installment and it appears that we get to explore some of Carol's past. Maybe I'll have the opportunity to learn more about Carol aside from her detective skills and lust for Sybil.
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