Women Detectives - Fiction, Police Stories

Hear Me Talking to You

Name: Hear Me Talking to You
Author: David Craig
ISBN: 9780727862020

by David Craig

Write a review

Overview

Detective Sally Bithron has been tipped off by an informer about a clandestine meeting in Cardiff, Wales, of two sets of drug pushers. But her stakeout goes wrong when violence and murder ensues. Three men are convicted; but there is a fourth, Frank Latimer, who is found not guilty partly because of Sally's evidence, or lack of it, and partly because of the lying testimony of Frank's girlfriend. But Sally and Frank grew up together, and were briefly childhood sweethearts. Could her evidence have been influenced by this' The one grows up on the side of law and order; the other. . . Sally's superiors are convinced Frank was guilty. And so are the patriarchs of a big, and very unpleasant, South London crime gang whose daughter, brutally battered in the bungled meeting, eventually dies in a Cardiff hospital after months on a life support system. Their code demands revenge; perhaps against Sally's informant, and perhaps against Frank and Sally. And perhaps against all three. . .

Synopsis

From the author of the famous Harper and Iles seriesDetective Sally Bithron has been tipped off about a meeting in Cardiff, Wales, between two sets of drug pushers. But her stakeout goes wrong when violence and murder ensue. Three men are convicted, but a fourth, Frank Latimer, is freed because of Sally's evidence, or lack of it. Sally's superiors are convinced Frank was guilty. And so are the gang of South London criminals involved. Their code demands revenge, perhaps against Sally's informant, perhaps against Frank and Sally. And perhaps against all three . . .

About the Author, David Craig

Bill James has been called "the Elmore Leonard of Britain's underworld" (Kirkus Reviews) and has been named a "Master of Crime" in a mystery roundup by the London Sunday Times, which said, "There is nothing else quite like this series of police procedurals. James is concerned with the dilemmas and difficulties of policing Britain's inner cities, and he addresses these in hard-edged narratives that leave readers gasping and flinching, praying the people in these stories never come to live in their streets." In addition to the Harpur and Iles series, James is the author of other mystery series and a book on Anthony Powell. He lives in Wales.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Kirkus Reviews

Craig, better known as Bill James (Between Lives, 2004, etc.), shows just how dangerous it can be for a police officer to keep a confidential informant confidential. Detective Constable Sally Bithron is sitting outside the rented Cardiff house where Brian Edward Aulus, aka Godzilla, has assured her a drug deal will go down when all hell breaks loose inside, leaving two men dead, a third dying and a fourth victim, mob daughter Avril Kale, comatose. Protecting Godzilla from the leaks that can crop up in even the best regulated cop shops, Sally tells her boss, Raging Bullfinch, and his boss, Supt. Ray Regnal, that she just happened to be driving past in time to have the authorities come pick up the bodies and chase the four men in balaclavas she saw leaving the scene. But it's obvious that they suspect otherwise. So does Sally's childhood friend Frank Latimer, who's soon picked up as Suspect Four. In a masterful interrogation notable for James's trademark circumlocutions, all parties involved make it clear that they each know the score and that nobody's going to give an inch. The interrogation is a model for the rest of the dialogue in this terse, nasty little tale, which involves threats so deliciously veiled in so many directions that it's just as well most of them don't pan out. So understated in its silky menace that you might think it had actually been written by Henry James.