From Publishers Weekly
In this solid British police procedural from Simms (
Pecking Order), Manchester Det. Insp. Jon Spicer looks into a bizarre series of murders, starting with the death of 22-year-old singer Polly Mather, whose throat is found clogged with a mysterious hard white substance. Simms shifts back and forth between the present—the autumn of 2002—and earlier the same year, when Spicer reconnected with an old friend, Tom Benwell, an advertising executive. Benwell has an unusual phobia, triggered by discarded used chewing gum, that's extreme enough to jeopardize his job. As Spicer investigates the murders, he finds a prime suspect in Benwell's company, a social misfit known by his colleagues as Creepy George. The author does a decent job of mixing the police investigation with Benwell's professional decline, though the resolution may strike some readers as too predictable. Spicer makes an appealing, if familiar, lead character.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
'An exciting new psychological thriller.' -- Carla McKay DAILY MAIL 'Partly an account of descent into mental illness, partly a satire on the advertising industry and partly an examination of drug culture, but it sticks in the mind most as a diatribe against that pavement menace, chewing gum' -- Jake Kerridge DAILY TELEGRAPH 'a new tec with a refreshingly different personality and approach to the job than the plodders we're used to.' **** -- Jon Wise LADS MAG 'a highly polished study of madness and murder... If you've not read Simms' work before, Killing the Beasts is a great starting point to enter his world of madness. But beware Simms' writing is addictive in the extreme.' -- Ali Karim OCTOBER MAGAZINE 'Where this book scores is in the characterisation... Benwell is a perfectly realised example of yuppie grace folding under pressure.' THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE 'the story's dramatic events are drawn out, gradually building up the tension to a page-turning, heart-stopping - and totally unexpected - ending. In turn highly atmospheric and insightful... a good read for those who like traditional British crime tales with a twist. THE BOOK PLACE
