November 26, 2012
Harrod-Eagles’s engrossing 15th Bill Slider mystery (after 2011’s Kill My Darling) has the London detective inspector investigating a fit, good-looking young man’s apparent suicide in a shabby flat. Only, as Slider realizes, the man didn’t commit suicide, but had his throat slashed after being drugged. The detective unravels the victim’s tangle of aliases to identify him as B.J. Corley, a wealthy and distinguished family’s highly accomplished scion. But why did he shave his legs, dye his hair, and become a minor actor in the pornography industry? Three more bodies that turn up murdered in the same way and disguised as suicides all prove to be linked to Corley’s secret life. As Slider’s team doggedly pursues the truth, vivid descriptions bring each detective to life, such as “scrawny frog-eyed” Det. Sgt. Colin Hollis. A sly wit that leavens this richly detailed mystery is a bonus.
December 15, 2012
How many murders gussied up to look like suicides can a killer get away with before DI Bill Slider catches on? The bathroom was very tidy. No great spurts of arterial blood. No water sloshed on the tiles. The naked body showed no signs of struggle. Still, something didn't seem quite right, and it wasn't. The victim was left-handed, but the fatal gash had been made by a right-handed person. Who was the dead bloke? There was no wallet, no papers and no cellphone to identify him. His neighbors barely knew him, and the name he gave them, Robin Williams, was surely an alias. Once Slider, Atherton and the rest of the crew at the Shepherd's Bush nick start showing his picture around, they soon discover that his hair dye job was recent. So were his tattoo and his stint in a porn video. Furthermore, for some reason, he bought an out-of-print recording by a group called Breaking Wave that brings sex, drugs and rock-and-roll into the investigation. There'll be several more bodies, most like the first--neat kills made to appear as suicides--but with drugs in their system, and a late-night come-on from a mysterious lady. Who was she--someone from Robin's distant past as a pop star and music journalist, from his recent past as a disco bartender, or from his current life, which includes dancing school? Using Atherton as bait, the coppers plan to inveigle the perp to try one more murder in the hope of catching him in the act. Between his love Joanna's grouchiness, his superior's lack of patience, and the case's seamier byways and drug-addled persons of interest, it's not the easiest of times for Slider (Kill My Darling, 2012, etc.), but most readers will want to spend even these dour moments with him.
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November 1, 2012
The consistently strong Harrod-Eagles pulls another rabbit out of her hat with the latest entry in her respected DI Bill Slider series. Slider's latest case has him and his team investigating the death of a mystery man found in the bathtub of his down-market apartment with his throat slit, and nothing left in the apartment except the furnitureno papers, no photos, no cell phone. It's clear the man was murdered, but who is he and why was he killed? The more Slider and his team learn, the less they know. Then another murder occurs, and there are enough similarities between the two to have Slider uttering the dreaded words serial killer. Dogged workdays of checking CCTV cameras, verifying alibis, conducting door-to-door interviewseventually leads to a startling conclusion. Clever, engaging, and well plotted, this is a fine example of the British police procedural and sure to be a hit with genre buffs and Anglophiles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)