The Killing Floor - Softcover

Turnbull, Peter

3.71

204 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0783814593 ISBN 13: 9780783814599

Publisher: G K Hall & Co, 1995

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In a story set in the tough, gritty streets of Glasgow, the men and women of P Division must solve the mystery of a long-dead corpse that was discovered without head or hands

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From Publishers Weekly:

Forcefully combining the percolating violence of his industrial strength locale with the inherent compassion of the Glasgow Police P Division, whose personal lives are made discordant by a cacophony of subtle ills, Turnbull continues quietly to dazzle with this fine series. His team moves into the suburbs here when a headless corpse is unearthed from the shrubbery of an empty house. The dead woman, who had a harsh nature and few friends, was a social worker who had drunkenly talked of cracking open a three-decades-old local mystery. P Division soon finds the two thugs responsible for her killing, but the real mystery is why Pam McArthur died, not how. Somewhere on the edge of the case is a handsome man in a Rolls Royce, dangerous and supremely confident. This eighth Glaswegian tale, coming after Long Day Monday, is slightly less gritty than the others, but Turnbull's knife-edged characterization, even among the supporting cast (a crippled young man walking the streets in the early hours to avoid abuse; a sad parade of stoic women in abusive relationships) is as incisive as ever. The pacing is languid until the coppers close in on the Rolls driver, when Turnbull looses a torrent of clues and conspiracies onto a complex father/son emotional field. The narrative's contrasting moods?assured and stately at first, then driven and brazenly ambitious?meet at the end irresistibly.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

The discovery of a woman's headless corpse sets Glasgow's famous "P" division on its latest case. Sussock and Reynolds, first on the scene, are doggedly determined to discover who murdered the young woman. Their persistence pays off when they find that the victim was an activist called Pam McArthur who had a bad habit of saying the wrong things to the wrong people at the wrong times. A second violent death--this time a stabbing--leads the investigators to a crumbling high-rise apartment block, where, as it turns out, Pam had stumbled onto a years-old scandal involving fraudulent contractors, crooked engineers, and a multimillion-dollar building scam. Turnbull's police procedurals have received high praise from readers and critics alike for their gritty realism, deft prose, and riveting plots. His latest is another fine example of all three of those elements. Outstanding crime fiction. Emily Melton

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