Dear Departed: A Bill Slider Mystery (Bill Slider Mysteries) - Hardcover

Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312347685 ISBN 13: 9780312347680

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2005

Synopsis

It's Detective Inspector Bill Slider's day off and he had hoped to have some quiet time with Joanna, his pregnant fiancée. But a woman's body is found in the park and he finds himself back to work sooner than he expected. At first glance, it looks as though the woman is the latest victim of the "Park Killer." But it doesn't take Slider and his partner Atherton long to establish that someone else was trying to pass the killing off as the handiwork of the notorious serial killer. This murder doesn't fit the pattern; this one was personal.

The woman's modest income and outlandish lifestyle don't match up. Turning to the two most popular motives---money and passion---Slider and his team turn up some puzzling anomalies in her life, not the least of which is the number of men she took as lovers and the tangled relationships of her family.

In Slider's latest adventure, the prolific and masterful Cynthia Harrod-Eagles draws from her great store of wit and warmth. The good-hearted and delightfully flawed Slider charms readers into accompanying him down any path, no matter how dangerous.

About this title

About the Author

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles was born and educated in Shepherd's Bush, London, and had a variety of jobs in the commercial world, starting as a junior cashier at Woolworth's and working her way down to Pensions Officer at the BBC. She is the author of sixty successful novels to date, including the twenty-five volumes of the Morland Dynasty series.

From Publishers Weekly

Delightful dialogue and carefully observed details make Harrod-Eagles's 10th Bill Slider mystery a winner (after 2002's Gone Tomorrow), despite a somewhat unimaginative choice of culprit. The London police detective and his likable team—especially Jim Atherton, a womanizer who's unexpectedly enlightened on other subjects, and Tony Hart, with her astute observations and wry sense of humor—look into what appears at first to be another strike by the so-called Park Killer. Chattie Cornfeld, however, died in a slightly different manner from previous victims, so Slider starts investigating other avenues. Chattie's notably unsavory half sister, Jassy, and Jassy's equally lowlife boyfriend had been pestering Chattie just before her murder. Chattie's estranged father, the head of a major chemical company, is a possible suspect, as are several of her love interests. Slider's own love interest, his pregnant girlfriend, Joanna, ducks in and out of the story, but fails to light up as the other main characters do. Nevertheless, there's plenty of energy and personality in these pages. (Dec.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0312347685
• ISBN 13: 9780312347680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352