February 1, 2020
This is a ripping good British mystery, with murder and betrayal among the treats. But it's possible to lose sight of it that with everything else going on?like charismatic coppers, including DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap; sparkling conversation reminiscent of No�l Coward; and plenty of offbeat?maybe spurious?knowledge on display. Can you really re-create a T. rex from ostrich DNA? The fun begins in the countryside when a body is found in a lake owned by a gorgeous, reclusive former film star, the "Lady" of the title. We read on as the investigation proceeds, waiting impatiently to see more of this "enchantress," as one smitten cop calls her. Crooked real-estate deals are unearthed, plus slave labor and grand-scale theft, all relayed in high-energy, forward-pulsing prose that should be the envy of those who write in the tough-talking, mean-streets style. Blessedly, the Lady drops into the narrative from time to time, reminding us, for example, why we all once wanted to be Cary Grant. So did Cary Grant: he was really just Archie Leach from Bristol. Jolly good.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
January 6, 2020
In Guttridge’s sprightly seventh Brighton mystery (after 2019’s Swimming with the Dead), Det. Insp. Sarah Gilchrist and Det. Sgt. Bellamy Heap are dispatched to a lake belonging to Hollywood film star Nimue Grace, where Maj. Richard Rabbitt, a neighbor of Grace, has been found with his throat slit. The possible murderers include locals Donald Kermode, who discovered the body while swimming nude in the lake and has a creepy obsession with Grace, and Said Farzi, who’s suspected of human trafficking. The stakes rise with the appearance of more bodies. Guttridge adds humor at appropriate spots, including in the byplay between the leads, as well as in the person of an eccentric ostrich farmer, who schemes to resurrect dinosaurs using DNA from his flightless birds. Catherine Aird fans who’ve not yet discovered this series will be delighted. Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton Agency (U.K.).
January 1, 2020
Several grisly murders provide a thorny problem for experienced detectives. DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap of the Brighton division are seconded to the short-staffed Lewes District just in time to catch the case of a body in a lake. The neighbor who found the dead man, his throat cut, identifies him as Maj. Richard Rabbitt, owner of the Plumpton Down Estate but not the lake, which belongs to Nimue Grace, whom Bellamy immediately recognizes as a well-known actress who's gone into seclusion. Rabbitt was much disliked by his neighbors; his estranged wife, Liesl, and his sister, Tallulah, were no great fans either. They learn from Tallulah that Rabbitt and his putative business partners, Said Farzi and William Simpson, were trying to buy Nimue's property. Simpson is well known to them as a smooth crook who almost ruined Gilchrist's career and that of her former lover, Brighton Police Commissioner Bob Watts (Swimming With the Dead, 2019, etc.). When they interview Nimue, they find her more than willing to help and are soon under the spell of her stunning beauty, charm, and considerable intellect. But dredging her lake reveals nothing more than a group of empty white plastic containers firmly attached to the shore which Nimue denies ever having seen. Farzi is not only Nimue's apparently wealthy neighbor, but also a slum landlord and a major danger to her. When a man is found beaten to death in one of Farzi's Brighton apartments, the police suspect that Farzi and Simpson are involved in importing drugs and slave laborers. Gilchrist and Heap are assigned to solve the Brighton murder while a very stupid colleague is switched to Rabbitt's case, but, refusing to leave Nimue's fate in his hands, they slyly keep up their investigation into what turns out to be a complex series of deep-rooted crimes. A masterly procedural with erudite characters and a nasty sting in the tail.
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