Lost - Hardcover

Kray, Roberta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569475067 ISBN 13: 9781569475065

Publisher: Soho Constable, 2008

Synopsis

Praise for Roberta Kray:

“You might expect a crime novel written by the widow of Reg Kray would be tough . . . and it is. Recommend this to fans of Ian Rankin.”—Booklist

“Convinces on every page.”—Chicago Tribune

“Razor-sharp writing and excellent pacing elevate this effort beyond the standard vengeance thriller.”—Publishers Weekly

Little Grace Harper disappeared over twenty years ago. Has she returned? PI Harry Lind’s investigation leads him into a web of deceit and betrayal.

Roberta Kray’s two previous novels are The Debt and The Pact.

About this title

About the Author

Roberta Kray was married to one of the notorious Kray twins written about by Jake Arnott and many others. This is her third thriller. Previous books in the series include The Pact and The Debt.

Reviews

Adult/High School—His body hobbled by an explosion he suffered less than a year earlier when he was a police officer, and his emotional life bruised by his longtime girlfriend's departure, private detective Harry Lind finds himself at the nexus of a crowd of mysteries. An alcoholic newspaper reporter is killed shortly after the two have a casual conversation. The reporter's protégée, a young woman with moxie to match his, attaches herself to Harry, not for emotional support but to browbeat him into helping her solve the murder and to identify the story on which her mentor was secretly working. That story, it turns out, involves another young woman, one with a mysterious past, which may mean that she is the grown version of a girl believed to have died at the age of eight. Kray keeps all these balls nicely aloft, but it is her characters who make this mystery a winner. Methodically, she develops Harry's-and readers'-understanding that the little girl lost may have grown into a woman who has no desire to be found, and who will tell lies and half-truths to steer detectives (journalistic and otherwise) away from discovering who she is and what she did as a teen. Mystery fans will appreciate the storytelling here.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

At the start of Kray's compelling, character-driven third London gangland novel (after The Pact and The Lost), Len Curzon, an alcoholic reporter interviewing a small-time villain in a local prison, notices a young woman visiting with a notorious older convict, Paul Deacon. The woman reminds him a lot of an eight-year-old girl, Grace Harper, who went missing 20 years earlier. Soon after making some indiscreet inquiries, Curzon is stabbed to death by an unknown assailant outside a pub. Meanwhile, PI Harry Lind, a crippled ex-cop, tries to track down a well-known crime czar's brother in-law, who's also disappeared. The two plot threads intersect when Jessica Vaughn, Curzon's friend and fellow reporter, has a boozy flirtation with Lind and persuades him that Curzon's murder isn't the random act of violence that the police assume. Kray captures the cadences and rhythm of underworld life, though some readers may feel some judicious trimming would have speeded up the action in spots. Still, fans of Derek Raymond and Ken Bruen will find much to admire. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* The third gangland mystery from the widow of famed British gangster Reg Kray is her best yet—the novel that should firmly establish her as a first-rate novelist, irrespective of family pedigree. Len Curzon, a journalist who specializes in crime stories, is visiting a prison inmate hoping to find a subject for a book. The inmate proves hopeless, but Len’s curiosity is aroused by another visitor: a beautiful woman who seems to be awfully cozy with a certain high-profile convicted murderer. Len follows her home and is gobsmacked to discover that she may be someone who disappeared, amid much publicity, when she was a young girl. But what would she be doing vsiting a murderer? Len enlists the aid of an ex-cop-turned-private-investigator, who has his own problems, including a case that involves the errant brother-in-law of a notorious gangster. All of this, mind, is just the premise, the jumping-off point for a story that grows in complexity until we are left utterly confused—and entirely unable to stop reading until Kray tells us what the heck is going on. A hard-edged, wonderfully convoluted, and frequently shocking novel. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Constable
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569475067
• ISBN 13: 9781569475065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320