Overview
The Old Rectory, West London, is the kind of house Detective Inspector Bill Slider covets with an "edifice complex." But on his "copper's pay," it's not likely he'll ever live in such a magnificent structure. Huge and imposing, with three sections built over a number of centuries, it now must add "crime scene" to its list of distinctions. A body is rather spoiling the view from the back terrace.. "Only two people live in the big house: famed historian Cyril Dacre, suffering through the final stages of a terminal illness, and his mousy daughter, Frances Hammond, who had the unpleasant experience of discovering Jennifer Andrews's corpse. She was lying, fully clothed, in a trench dug by her husband, Eddie, a builder whom Frances had hired to repair the terrace. Did he dump his wife's body and hope to cover it with concrete?. "Could the death have been an accident, with someone depositing the body in panic? Where was Jennifer in the hours before her demise? Why didn't her husband report her missing? If it was murder, where did the crime occur? And who is the killer? It looks to be a straightforward case, but Slider finds that nothing makes sense.Synopsis
The Old Rectory, West London, is the kind of house Detective Inspector Bill Slider covets with an "edifice complex." But on his "copper's pay," it's not likely he'll ever live in such a magnificent structure. Huge and imposing, with three sections built over a number of centuries, it now must add "crime scene" to its list of distinctions. A body is rather spoiling the view from the back terrace.. "Only two people live in the big house: famed historian Cyril Dacre, suffering through the final stages of a terminal illness, and his mousy daughter, Frances Hammond, who had the unpleasant experience of discovering Jennifer Andrews's corpse. She was lying, fully clothed, in a trench dug by her husband, Eddie, a builder whom Frances had hired to repair the terrace. Did he dump his wife's body and hope to cover it with concrete?. "Could the death have been an accident, with someone depositing the body in panic? Where was Jennifer in the hours before her demise? Why didn't her husband report her missing? If it was murder, where did the crime occur? And who is the killer? It looks to be a straightforward case, but Slider finds that nothing makes sense.
The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio
...Slider, whose own convulsive extramarital affairs in this refreshingly grown-up series have made him sensitive to the complexities of modern relationships, believes in looking beneath surfaces.
Editorials
Marilyn Stasio
...Slider, whose own convulsive extramarital affairs in this refreshingly grown-up series have made him sensitive to the complexities of modern relationships, believes in looking beneath surfaces.—The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly -
The emotional complexity and intelligent dialogue that have marked the six previous Bill Slider mysteries, mostly recently Killing Time, continue in Harrod-Eagles's latest London-based procedural. Detective Inspector Slider and his sophisticated second in command, Atherton, investigate a murder in a West London square. The fully clothed body of a local woman, laid out in a trench dug during repairs on the home of a famous historian, is discovered early one morning by the historian's grown daughter. The victim is the wife of the contractor working on the house, a violently jealous man. Learning that the couple had fought recently in public and that the husband can't account for his whereabouts at the time of death, the police hold him for questioning. Their investigation quickly reveals that the dead woman was promiscuous and highly unpopular. Although the husband confesses, Slider remains unconvinced of his guilt and follows the sad and sordid trail laid by the victim and her many paramours to its sorrowful conclusion. Alert readers will identify the murderer before Harrod-Eagles allows her hero to, but time spent in the company of this literate crew, including Slider's violinist lover, Joanna, is always worthwhile. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
When builder Edward Andrews's wife is found dead in the trenches around a famed historian's home, which Andrews is repairing, the suspect is pretty obvious. But Inspector Billy Slider, on his seventh case, isn't so easily persuaded.Marilyn Stasio
...Slider, whose own convulsive extramarital affairs in this refreshingly grown-up series have made him sensitive to the complexities of modern relationships, believes in looking beneath surfaces.— The New York Times Book Review