- Paperback: 9999 pages
- Publisher: Pan; New edition edition (11 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330367129
- ISBN-13: 978-0330367127
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 749,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Personal dilemmas for DI Judy Hill, a virus and media prosecution for DCI Lloyd - but, in the end, the popular detectives triumph. And quite right too. McGowan sets her scene: a thoroughly unpleasant bully who is just begging to be murdered and a tight little group of people, all of whom have motive, means and opportunity to do away with him. The drama is played out against a background of rural tension. Will Bernard Bailey give way in the face of intimidation and sell his farmland for a new road? Will his beautiful wife produce the son he wants so much, or might she be driven away by his cruelty? So far so traditional, but this author's magic is in her plotting - meticulous, convoluted and always surprising. A good read. (Kirkus UK)
Somebody really wanted Bernard Bailey dead, somebody who was willing to inject him with barbiturates, slip him a massive dose of morphine, then stab him a few times for good measure. Was it the anonymous correspondent who threatened him with death if he didn't sell his fallow farmland to neighboring developer Mike McQueen for a right-of-way that would otherwise disrupt avirgin forest?. To Stansfield's Inspector Lloyd and his lover, Inspector Judy Hill, it seems as if the only effect of the surveillance camera, alarms, bells, and whistles that Bailey installed in response to the threats was to give his wife an ironclad alibi for his murder. But that may be just what Rachel Bailey needs, since she was a hired wife who stood to gain nothing from her marriage unless she bore her beastly husband the son that would secure his inheritance - and since she's evidently been whiling away the hours between his joyless attempts at procreation flirting with every warm-blooded male in the village of Harmston. Two of her potential lovers, TV reporter Curtis Law, and Save Our Woodlands Sites activist Jack Melville, have motives of their own, as do Bailey's abused daughter Nicola and, yes, canny Mike McQueen himself. But McGown, as you'd expect, has still more tricks up her sleeve. The fantastically intricate murder plot lacks the tragic inevitability of Verdict Unsafe (1997). Still, it's a pleasure watching McGown's wheels of justice grind exceeding small. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Somebody really wanted Bernard Bailey dead, somebody who was willing to inject him with barbiturates, slip him a massive dose of morphine, then stab him a few times for good measure. Was it the anonymous correspondent who threatened him with death if he didn't sell his fallow farmland to neighboring developer Mike McQueen for a right-of-way that would otherwise disrupt avirgin forest?. To Stansfield's Inspector Lloyd and his lover, Inspector Judy Hill, it seems as if the only effect of the surveillance camera, alarms, bells, and whistles that Bailey installed in response to the threats was to give his wife an ironclad alibi for his murder. But that may be just what Rachel Bailey needs, since she was a hired wife who stood to gain nothing from her marriage unless she bore her beastly husband the son that would secure his inheritance - and since she's evidently been whiling away the hours between his joyless attempts at procreation flirting with every warm-blooded male in the village of Harmston. Two of her potential lovers, TV reporter Curtis Law, and Save Our Woodlands Sites activist Jack Melville, have motives of their own, as do Bailey's abused daughter Nicola and, yes, canny Mike McQueen himself. But McGown, as you'd expect, has still more tricks up her sleeve. The fantastically intricate murder plot lacks the tragic inevitability of Verdict Unsafe (1997). Still, it's a pleasure watching McGown's wheels of justice grind exceeding small. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Lloyd and Hill investigate the murder of a man everybody wanted to kill
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ms McGown produces her very own 'Murder on The Orient Express' with the tale of a man whom everybody wants to kill - although that doesn't give the ending away, because there are more clues and red herrings even than is usual for a Lloyd and Hill novel. At times this does tend to make the plot confusing (who was where? What did they do?), but Jill McGown is a skilled enough writer to bring everything together for a particularly fine denouement. Not her best, but still an excellent piece of crime fiction.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Great novel, the best in a series
16 May 1998
Format:Hardcover
Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and Detective Superintendent Case are investigating the death of East Midlands farmer Bernard Bailey. The police quickly realize that there are many suspects who had motives and means to murder the abusive landowner. Bailey's wife Rachel was a victim of spousal abuse as he constantly battered her for failing to produce a male heir. Bailey's adult daughter was also a victim of her sire's truculent nature. Than there are those outside the family such as Rachel's lover Curtis Law and a builder Mike McQueen who coveted Bailey's land. As Lloyd and Case struggle with their own relationship, they also find the complex case becoming even more difficult to resolve.
The seventh Lloyd and Hill mystery is a wonderful British who-done-it because of the deep psychological insights into all the characters, which in turn provides a plethora of potential culprits. Though Rachel is a bit of adisappointment as a protagonist, Jill McGowan insures that her book exceeds its title (PICTURE OF INNOCENCE) with a complexity rarely seen in a mystery novel, let alone a British cozy. This series is worth reading in its entirety, but this particular novel is either the best or at a minimum within the top three books of the Lloyd and Hill mysteries.
Harriet Klausner
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Is it the Best in the Series?
26 April 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Ms. McGown gets better with each book in the Lloyd/Hill series, so it's hard to say it's the best since I have yet to read her last three. But this book is certainly the best so far! Ms. McGown is an incredible writer! Her books are complex and wickedly intelligent. Her characters get better too. Rachel Bailey is totally wonderful! And pay attention to her titles. They always mean something integral to the story. In this book we have a murder victim that no one wants to see revenged. Bernard Bailey was a monster - to his daughter, his wife and everyone that he dealth with. Who really cares who killed him? Well Lloyd and Hill need to find out and they have more clues and suspects than they know what to do with. Can they put them all together, separate the wheat from the chaff? And if they can, can they then provide the correct evidence to send the killer to prison? Do they want to send the murderer to prison even? Bailey was a grade A cad, and the world will be a better place without him in it. Read this awesome book.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Worst book I ever finished
9 July 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The only good thing about this mystery is that it is a real page-turner. She does manage to write in such a way that one wants to keep reading to find out what happens. I do like Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill. But that's all I can say that is good. I knew I wasn't going to like it early on when the drug dealer comes to Curtis Law's apartment carrying a gun, and Curtis says he hadn't expected that. I mean, duh? Then there's Rachel. So beautiful that every man that sees her wants to take her to bed, so talented that she manages to decorate her home beautifully, and always dresses in gorgeous clothing. She's also very smart, supposedly able to figure out what everyone is doing and thinking. She's spent all these years with the rich and famous, but has never picked up even a modicrum of grammar. And, poor thing, the only way she can make a living is to sleep with anyone who can offer her anything. If she's that beautiful, don't you think she could be a model either for clothing or some girlie magazines. She's a slut for goodness sake! None of the characters were believable, but she was the worst. I only finished it because it was a selection of my book club, and all but one of those members thought it was awful, and definitely not worth reading.
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