From Publishers Weekly
London Det. Chief Inspector Lloyd and his colleague and lover, Judy Hill, series protagonists last seen in The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale , are caught up, and nearly strangled, in a convoluted plot in which they, the murder victim and the suspects are knotted together in a series of unraveling, interwoven relationships. Reporter Melissa Whitworth is working on a story about illicit love affairs when she realizes that she's interviewing her husband's mistress, a young woman who subsequently causes a fight between two men at the opening of a new football field. A few hours later, after Melissa has avenged herself in bed with a sportswriter, he stumbles over the mistress's corpse. Many of these events are observed by a young motorcyclist dressed in black. Hill and Lloyd must interview a slew of men smitten with the victim, deal with their own tempestuous affair and investigate a series of rapes that dovetail with the murder. McGown rescues her story from its elliptical, intricate beginning to produce a bravura finish.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
This time out, Stansfield's Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and colleague-girlfriend Inspector Judy Hill (The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale, 1991, etc.) have two heavy cases to solve--a serial rapist is on the loose, and Sharon Smith, young secretary to law partners Lionel Evans and Simon Whitcomb, has been found strangled at the sports complex where a football game had been cut short by fog. Earlier, a clubhouse party was hosted there by flamboyant developer Jake Parker, who'd recently employed Sharon and helped get her the law firm job. Whitcomb's wife Melissa, features writer on a local paper, had discovered her husband's affair with Sharon and, in hurt and anger, has started one of her own with sportswriter Mac McDonald, who'd found Sharon's body. Lloyd's pet murder suspect is wiseguy motorcycle freak Colin Drummond, but Drummond's alibi seems ironclad--as does that of Jake Parker, who was in police custody at the crucial time, after a minor fracas at the football field. Timetables for everyone concerned are hashed and rehashed in numbing detail--until Judy gets the inspiration that cracks the case. Sensitive handling of personal relationships is overwhelmed by ingenious but tedious overkill on plot minutiae. Readable but far from riveting. --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
by Jill McGown
