Nights In White Satin (Laura Principal novels) (Paperback)

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Review
Sure-footedly based in Cambridge, here's a series, and a detective, tailor-made to pick up the baton recently dropped by Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse. City and colleges, town-and-gown, are unerringy evoked, most of the characters having some connections, in some capacity, with both communties. The fourth of Private Eye Laura Principal's cases begins on the most glamorous, most exciting, and intemperate of occasions in the University calendar: the evening of the May Ball. Exams are over, the long summer break lies ahead; euphoria, fuelled by alcohol, mounts as the music begins, the fireworks flair, and the black ties and white satin dresses fill the grounds of St John's College. On the night of the May Ball anything could happen. There is a faint hint of danger, as well as the scent of flowers, in the air. Laura and her partner Sonny, of Aardvark Investigations, responsible for security, are well aware of this - though not entirely prepared for the sequence of events which follows the abrupt departure, and subsequent total disappearance, of pretty Katie Arkwright, student at a minor college, at the height of the celebrations - events which are to uncover some very shocking and scandalous events in the past, and lead to the brutal murder of a Senior Tutor. Truly unputdownable... guaranteed to hook its readers not just to this one book, but anything else this outstanding new crime writer produces, driven as she is by an unmistakable, genuine animus against those who assume disdainful superiority over others. (Kirkus UK)

Even though men will sometimes be boys when women and drink are on offer, nothing could be more decorous, or more jealous of its propriety, than the May Ball, when Cambridge students celebrate the end of exams. That's why Philip Patterson, the master of St. John's College, passes over the police to ask Laura Principal, who's just finished arranging security matters for the ball, to look into the disappearance of Katie Arkwright, a visitor from lowly Anglia University across town, who asked her prim escort, Jared Scott-Pettit, to leave the dance and then took off without him when he declined. The briefest investigation discloses Katie's earlier brush with Cambridge: while she was waiting tables at a private dinner for the Dorics, 40 undergraduates and recent alumni of St. Bartholomew's, in the college's Echo Room, her clients turned on her, stripped her, and assaulted her. Is the person behind her disappearance now Roger Duff, ringleader of the Dorics, or Stephen Fox, senior tutor at St. Bart's, who sniffs to Laura that Katie was anything but blameless in the incident? Before Laura - bereft of her partner and sometime lover Sonny Mendlowitz, who's off trying to vindicate a client accused of beating a prostitute - can focus her suspicions, murder narrows the field of suspects and raises the stakes for those remaining. Good Cambridge backgrounds and a strong sense of moral outrage offset the predictability and occasional self-importance of Laura's fourth-case (Standing in the Shadows, 1998, etc.). (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
It's May week in Cambridge, a time of wild excess following the end of exams, but for Laura Principal, the May Ball turns sour when Katie Arkwright disappears. In her white satin dress, and with her halo of blonde curls, Katie looked angelic, but Laura discovers that her past was anything but.

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2 Reviews 5 star:  (1) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Laura Principal on the case of missing person Katie, 12 Dec 2000 By A Customer This review is from: Nights in White Satin: A Laura Principal Novel (Mass Market Paperback) The scene is the beautiful city of Cambridge amidst the greens and blues of summer. Katie disappears from the May ball at one of the Cambridge colleges and since PI Laura Principal was responsible for security at that ball, she is politely asked to investigate the disappearance. Laura's search uncovers the seedier side of college life and male privilege and the unwillingness on the part of the authorities to disclose anything detrimental to the college's reputation. Laura is intrigued by Katie's disappearance and despite being called off the search by the girl's anorexic and extremely neurotic mother, she is adamant that finding her is crucial to solving another murder at the college. The descriptions of Cambridge evoke memories of English summers in anyone who has experienced them and the insight into the privileged elitist university environment is a delightful mix of irony and disdain. One cannot help but admire the setting with its historic traditions, but at the same time the revelation of the horrors perpetrated, somewhat as a matter of course, within their walls is a sobering realism not for the sentimentally minded. Be prepared to have romance blasted out of the water as the villains procede seemingly untouchable because of their class and gender! This is a great read with a climax that, while expected, still shocks in its true to life solution, uncovering the worst that elitest college education of young men from privileged backgrounds can create. This is social, feminist and historical criticism at its best. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Not just recommended. A MUST, 17 Jul 1999 By A Customer This review is from: Nights In White Satin (Laura Principal novels) (Hardcover) At the Cambridge May ball, on a warm balmy magical evening in June, amidst champagne, smoked salmon, music and laughter, young, pretty Katie Arkwright disappears. In this, the forth in the series featuring Laura Principal, Private Investigator, Aardvark Investigations had been retained to repel gatecrashers and maintain security at the Cambridge May ball. Following the disappearance, Laura is retained by Stephen Fox, senior tutor at Bart's to find the missing girl. Whilst pursuing her investigations into Katie's disappearance, a murder and an unexplained death unfold. Both shocking. Are they related to the missing girl? Are the solutions locked in the past? The writing in this book is beautiful, Michelle descriptive powers brought the scenes to life. I felt the heat, and the beauty of Cambridge. The contrasts of life she portrays are so vivid.. Some of the settings invoked a time gone by. At all times during the story, the weather is hot and when Laura goes punting with her friend Helen down the river to Grantchester for a picnic, I thought of Rupert Brooke. This is a book full of full of beauty, violence, sadness, pain, and emotional conflict. It's also about choices, and the guilt that comes from fast actions that we think will solve an immediate problem and then we find that we maybe cannot live with them. also the resulting pain. It's also a first class mystery, which I urge you all to read. This is not just highly recommended, it's a must. Lizzie Hayes. 17 July 1999 Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 2 customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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