Blood Sinister (A Bill Slider mystery)
 
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Time Warner Paperbacks Number of pages: 320 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) |
And with Blood Sinister, Harrod-Eagles has produced her most adroit and involving outing for Slider yet. When award-winning hack Phoebe Agnew is found trussed and strangled in her untidy flat, the most striking clue is that the singularly undomesticated Agnew cooked an elaborate meal for someone before her death. Was it her old friend (and possibly lover) Josh Prentiss? But when Slider begins to dig, pressure from the Home Office quickly shows that Prentiss (a government advisor) has powerful friends. The case is riddled with anomalies: Unidentified fingerprints, a missing ligature and several people all too ready to give alibis before they are requested to. Struggling with a plethora of loose ends, Slider finds more difficulties created by the bizarre behaviour of Atherton, a friend and colleague who seems to be heading for a breakdown. All the while, a killer is at large; someone perfectly prepared to murder again to protect themselves. A good test of a commanding thriller is the speed with which the reader finds his or herself propelled through the pages--and Blood Sinister moves with express-train speed. The strikingly disparate cast of characters encountered by Slider further ensures that this is one of the most distinctive entries in the series, coupled with the usual atmospheric detail: "The dark room had a faint fragrance of past pot-pourri and dusty carpet, underlined with damp and a hint of candlewax. A bit like a church, Atherton thought: Hassocks, cassocks, incense and rot." --Barry Forshaw Fair enough. Be prepared, however, for a rollicking jaunt down a number of garden paths. Rollicking? Well, there's the usual complement of outrageous puns and, thanks be, we have the malapropish Supt. Polson back with us. "Let me have a stasis report" and "Our every movement will be scrutinised with a tooth-comb". The reader should pay special attention to the chapter headings. Two of my favourites: "Three corns on a Fonteyn" and "Many are cold but few are frozen". What sets this series apart from many of the modern so-called mysteries is the author's gift for characterization. Slider and his crew are ordinary folk with all of our own hopes, fears and feelings of guilt. Slider's concern for the troubled Atherton and his uncertainties about his future with Joanna are beautifully drawn and entirely believable. No super-heroes with giant egos here. No super-vllains, either. Harrod-Eagles writes with a verisimilitude wich is all to rare these days. Furthermore, she plays fair with her readers. We don't have to put up with convenient last-minute coincidences or late chapter appearances of the suspects. This reader is particularly grateful for the author's use of the single point of view. Too many writers in this genre today find it convenient to get into the heads of several of their characters. So where's the mystery? In BLOOD SINISTER, we have a proper mystery and a gem of a book .
RRP: £5.99
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Given the throng of Detective Inspectors tracking down killers in crime fiction at present, it takes something special for a sleuth to make a mark. Bill Slider, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' wonderfully blunt and witty DI, effortlessly joins the higher echelons of literary coppers in such ingeniously plotted and elegantly wrought thrillers as Death Watch and Killing Time.
Oh, that Cynthia Harrod Eagles! Naughty, naughty!
Review date: 2000-02-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
In this, the latest Bill Slider mystery, we have Phoebe Agnew, hack journalist and no friend of the police, bound and strangled in her flat. We also have a prime suspect with powerful friends.
Reviews
A complex tale of deception, secrets & hidden relationships.
Review date: 1999-12-12 Rating: 10 out of 10
Blood Sinister by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Phoebe Agnew, journalist, and champion of the underdog is found strangled in her London flat.
The eight in the Bill Slider series is a complex tale of deception, secrets and hidden relationships. For whom, would Phoebe who in her early fifties, still lives a student bed-sit style life, cook an elaborate meal?. Sounds simple, but unravelling the style and life of Phoebe Agnew it poses quite a question.
Whilst, I guessed half way through the book what had happened, I couldn't quite work out how or why, and the last was the most interesting.
Apart from the murder, devotees of this series will find the relationships of the protagonist and his friends and family of equal interest. Atherton, that elegant hero is undergoing his own crisis, and Slider's relationship with Joanna, which I enjoy, is also about to be sorely tested.
Highly recommended.
Lizzie Hayes December 1999
Oh! By the by, I noted fourteen Porsonism's. Did anyone else count them?
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Recording label: Time Warner Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Time Warner Paperbacks
EAN: 9780751529074
Binding: Paperback
Dewey decimal number: 813
ISBN: 0751529079
Number of pages: 320
Publication date: 2000-12-07
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
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