Review
"* 'Two of the most memorable police detectives to appear in mystery fiction' - Ed McBain * 'A stylish gift for language... tender and believable... the characters come alive' -Washington Post Book World * 'The Hammet-Chandler tradition is alive and well... all the right laconic flicks of humour, all the right humanity under the slick quickness that the old masters employed' - H R F Keating * 'Perhaps the best novelist of the New South... and one of the most distinctive talents to emerge in crime fiction.' - Guardian
A dead girl with a shaved head wearing nothing but a T-shirt, a police chief in love with the governor's wife, and a homicide detective struggling to deal with the death of his baby son and a growing obsession with an Irish rock star... the stage is set for some wise-cracking, hard-drinking Southern sleuthing. Award-winning author Michael Malone delves deeper into Hillstown, North Carolina, the setting of his hugely popular Uncivil Seasons and Time's Witness. The discovery of an unknown woman's body, with all the hallmarks of a serial killing, makes it personal for Lt Justin Savile V and Police Chief Cuddy Mangum. Caught up in old feuds and new animosities, how will they net the 'Guess Who Killer'? As the hostile media and manipulative politicians threaten their downfall, they are forced to suspect those closest to them - and to fear for the safety of their own 'first ladies'. The unfolding of events is shadowed by the presence of complex emotional and political motives reaching back through the history of the South, which throw into doubt even the most likeable personalities. The answers remain tantalizingly out of reach, as Savile and Mangum wait for the inevitable news that the murderer has struck again.... (Kirkus UK)
Guardian, April 27, 2002
'This is an award-bound tale of mischief and compassion...'
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