Shadow of Death - Hardcover

Gilpatrick, Noreen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892965150 ISBN 13: 9780892965151

Publisher: Mysterious Pr, 1995

Synopsis

Kate MacLean can't shake the image that the pretty teenager - her hands folded and her clothes neatly arranged as she lay along a suburban bridle path - looks like a sleeping princess. But no prince's kiss will ever wake her up. It is a murder case that touches Kate's heart and hardens her resolve to solve it, even though she has just lost the man who meant the most to her - her partner Sam.
Sam's decision to reconcile with his wife and request nine-to-five desk duty is a blow to Kate professionally. She'll be out on the streets alone - or worse, riding with a ringer from the all-male homicide department who wants to see the first woman in their ranks fail. Sam's announcement hits Kate personally even harder, cutting off the growing feelings that were making them best friends - and perhaps lovers.
Now she suspects that a twisted kind of love or desire is behind this case of the gently handled corpse.

About this title

Reviews

Engaging Seattle detective Kate MacLean, last seen in Final Design, must call on her abundant reserves of shrewdness and sensitivity to uncover the sins of a modern city-on-a-hill. The killer of young Sarah Taft carefully, almost affectionately, laid out the body of the lovely teenage girl in the park where she died. Kate discounts random violence, which is the preferred theory of Sarah's only acquaintances, members of a tightly knit Christian church and school community who frustrate Kate's inquiries: they don't do murder, and that's that. Kate is left with scraps of gossip (e.g., boys who had crushes on Sarah) and fragments of the community's practices and history. Sorely missing her former partner, Sam, who has taken a desk job and attempted a reconciliation with his wife, Kate is desperate enough for clues to pursue a meddling civilian's lead to an informant who is convinced the church runs a harem. A second murder shocks the community, but not into openness and not in time to prevent more horrors. In her affecting portrayal of high intentions betrayed and corrupted, Gilpatrick frames a compelling puzzle that makes great demands on her game sleuth and fully rewards her readers.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Two biblical quotations that provide the title and a religious point of reference preface this police procedural. King County (Washington State) police detective Kate MacLean is stymied by the administrators of a strict Christian school as she tries to investigate the murder of a student. In the meantime, the killer of beautiful, "perfect" Sarah Taft bides his (or her) time. Gilpatrick spends much effort on descriptive detail, psychological motivation, usual subplot sidebars, and everything else that police investigations entail; recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892965150
• ISBN 13: 9780892965151
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 385