Death Penalties: A Luke Abbott Mystery - Hardcover

Gosling, Paula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892964588 ISBN 13: 9780892964581

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1991

Synopsis

A widow must investigate her husband's fatal accident in order to determine which one of her acquaintances is secretly harassing her

About this title

About the Author:

Paula Gosling was born in Detroit and moved permanently to England in 1964. She worked as a copywriter and a freelance copy consultant before becoming a full-time writer in 1979. She published her first novel, A Running Duck, in 1974. This won the John Creasey Award for the best first novel of the year and Monkey Puzzle, the first in her Jack Stryker series, won a Gold Dagger. She is a past Chairman of the CWA.

From Kirkus Reviews:

More sluggish than most Gosling outings, this venture begins with the hit-and-run death of Roger Leland, which still causes his son Max nightmares. Was it a mere accident--or more? When retired cop and sole witness Ivor Parks dies mysteriously, Sergeant Tim Nightingale, on his own time, begins niggling away--and discovers that: Mrs. Leland has been receiving a series of threatening calls asking her to return ``it''; an intruder's been by; and her redecorating of Dolly McMurdo's mansion has been stymied by the counter-orders issued by Dolly's nephew, Archie (whom, it later turns out, Dolly has never heard of). Chief Inspector Luke Abbott, now on full alert, joins forces with Nightingale and, with keen interrogation techniques, uncovers the dead man's problem--he was an unwilling drug courier who ultimately absconded with the profits. But the real baddies aren't brought to justice until Nightingale's ribs take a pummeling, Max is kidnapped, and the McMurdo mansion is turned topsy-turvy. Earnest, with a serviceable plot, but the Abbott/Nightingale detecting team is so low-key as to be tedious, and Gosling's fervid imagination seems to be napping this time out. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0892964588
• ISBN 13: 9780892964581
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232