Unlucky for Some: A Novel of Suspense

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Thirteen proves to be a lucky number for British author McGown, as the 13th outing for her detective chief inspectors, Lloyd and Hill, amply justifies her selection by the London Times as one of last century's Masters of Crime. Her engaging husband-wife team find themselves matched with an extremely cunning serial killer. The bludgeoning of a bingo winner seems to be a simple mugging gone bad, until the police discover that the victim's winnings were left behind, displayed on the corpse in a perverse arrangement that hints at a cryptic deeper significance. Lloyd and Hill are put under additional pressure by the presence at the crime scene of a legendary reporter who had shown up the police two decades earlier by singlehandedly averting a miscarriage of justice through his identification of the real South Coast murderer, a serial slayer. With this entry, which may strike some as an homage to Agatha Christie's classic The ABC Murders , McGown's series can legitimately be compared to Peter Lovesey's outstanding Peter Diamond novels, blending police procedural and twisty whodunit tropes with sardonic humor and byplay between members of the police force. While she's not yet a household name in U.S. mystery circles, this excellent effort could—and should—change that. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal Adult/High School-What at first appears to be an accidental murder by a mugger in a hurry turns out to be just one in a series of killings in which money is spread across the victims' bodies. Danny Lloyd and Judy Hill, both Detective Chief Inspectors and married to one another, take on the case. Stepping up to help with the investigation, journalist Tony Baker provides clues and details as the only eyewitness. Baker, who had made his journalistic name through investigating a previous serial-murderer case, adds another layer of complexity to the plot as he becomes the focus of a blackmailer. Except for brief scenes of action, the story is told from character interactions or scenes featuring the individuals mulling over the deaths. The numerous characters tend to make following the investigation challenging at first, but individuals become more clearly defined as the story moves along. Police procedurals give a feeling of reality to the situation. The 13th book in McGown's series featuring this couple, the story stands well on its own. -Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Praise for Jill McGown’s Lloyd and Hill mysteries MURDER AT THE OLD VICARAGE “A first-rate mystery . . . A spiderweb of a tale . . . fiendishly clever.” –The Washington Post THE MURDERS OF MRS. AUSTIN AND MRS. BEALE “Sophisticated and satisfying.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer VERDICT UNSAFE “A cleverly constructed, realistic courtroom drama that keeps you totally involved.”–ANNE PERRY PICTURE OF INNOCENCE “A masterpiece of controlled complexity.”– Publishers Weekly (starred review) PLOTS AND ERRORS “A dazzlingly devious tangle of clues and coincidences.”– Chicago Tribune SCENE OF CRIME “As sound an example of pure classical detection, including Agatha Christie-style whodunit misdirection, as you’ll find.”– Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine DEATH IN THE FAMILY “An intricate, convincing web of family intrigue that endures to the final pages.”– Mystery Scene A native of Argyll, Scotland, JILL MCGOWN has lived in Corby, England, since she was ten. She wrote her first novel, A Perfect Match , in 1983. Among those that have followed are Gone to Her Death , Murder at the Old Vicarage , Murder . . . Now and Then , The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale , The Other Woman , A Shred of Evidence , Verdict Unsafe , Picture of Innocence , Plots and Errors , Scene of Crime, and Death in the Family .Visit the author’s website at www.JillMcGown.com. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter OneIn the cold, gray light of a mid-February afternoon, Michael Waterman watched Detective Chief Superintendent Raymond Yardley’s putt roll gently over the manicured green heading toward the thirteenth hole, and walked over, hand outstretched, conceding the putt before the ball had stopped moving. “Too good,” he said, taking out his wallet, and extracting five twenties. “I believe we said a hundred?”“We did.” Ray grinned, sliding the notes into his back pocket. “Which means a lot more to me than it does to you.”Michael picked up both balls and put his redundant putter back in the bag, hoisting it to his shoulder as the two men walked together toward the clubhouse. He’d lost at the thirteenth hole on the thirteenth of the month—maybe there was something in the superstition after all.But Ray’s burly figure dwarfed the slight, wiry Michael, and that was much more likely to be where Michael’s problems lay. Admittedly, Michael was looking closely at fifty and Ray had just turned forty, but they were both fit, they were both competitive. Age wasn’t a factor. Ray could drive the ball farther, it was as simple as that; he gave himself a better chance of a simple approach shot to the green. Maybe, Michael thought, he should go to one of these coaches to help him get more power into his shot.“I’d have thought you’d know better than to gamble,” said Ray. “At least when you know you don’t stand a chance of winning.”“I make my living from people who gamble when they’ve no chance of winning. And I would remind you that some of my best customers are coppers.”Ray grinned. “Oh—policemen gamble on anything. I think our unof?cial bookies sometimes take more than you do in a day’s trading.” He pulled open the clubhouse door, and stood aside to let Michael go ahead. “The current book is on who’s going to head the major crime unit—the betting’s been very heavy.”“Oh?” Michael frowned. “I thought that had been shelved.”“The serious crime squad’s been shelved—it was felt that the specialist units already in place covered the causes of most serious crime. Drugs, fraud, terrorism—that sort of thing. The major crime unit will have a different brief,” he said, as they reached the bar. “What’ll you have?”“A whisky, thanks.” It was a rare treat; Michael never drank when he was driving, and he was usually driving. “So what would this major crime unit do?”“It would deal with the serious crimes non-criminals commit. The thinking is that detectives used to dealing with known offenders and hardened criminals aren’t so hot when it comes to honest citizens turned murderers. Crimes like that need a different approach. It would be a small, hand-picked unit.”“Is there enough of that sort of crime to keep a specialist unit going?”“I think so, because of the length of time they can take to investigate. But they’ll also reopen cold cases, see what someone with a bit more imagination than the average copper can do with them.”Michael smiled. “I’m tempted to say that everyone has—”“I know, I know,” said Ray, before Michael could finish. “But some of us can see past the ends of our noses.”Present company excepted, thought Michael. Ray might have fast-tracked his way to his current job of heading Malworth CID, but he had no imagination whatsoever. “So who’s the front-runner?” he asked.“Detective Chief Inspector Hill, assuming she applies for it. I told you we gambled on anything—she might not come under starter’s orders. She’s based at Malworth—she’s done a good job there.” He smiled. “She’s very attractive, too.”“Well—maybe I can get an introduction.”“Sorry, Mike, she’s taken. She’s married to DCI Lloyd over at Stansfield.”Even better, thought Michael. Married women didn’t expect anything from you. “She kept her own name?”“Only to avoid confusion. They are happily married, with a two-year-old daughter.”“More fast-track coppers?”“No. This is second time around for both of them—she’s ten years younger than him, though. I think you’ve met DCI Lloyd—he’s Welsh, not particularly tall. Very dark hair, what there is of it.”“Oh, yes. I remember him.” Michael smiled. “A two-year-old daughter will keep him on his toes.”“They’ve been together for years, but they only got married about eighteen months ago.” Ray asked for the menu, and once they had ordered, he settled in for a gossip. “Apparently, it all started twenty-odd years ago when they were both in London, at the Met. He was married, but she wasn’t. Then next thing, she goes and marries some man and goes to live in Nottingham, while he gets a divorce, but she doesn’t know that. Anyway, she manages to persuade her husband to move to Stans?eld . . .”Michael stopped listening, as he often did with Ray. He liked his brother-in-law, but he seriously suspected that he never actually stopped talking. Having a conversation with him was almost impossible, once he’d got going. Michael wondered if he was like that at work.Being related by marriage to casino owners was not something the constabulary recommended to its senior of?cers, but it hadn’t held Ray back, because in his line of work Michael heard the odd whisper of use to the police, and it sometimes worked to their advantage. And Michael played it straight, for the most part. His business dealings were squeaky clean and always had been, but if Ray really believed that he just resigned himself to writing off large gambling debts that he couldn’t recover in court, that just showed how little imagination he had.During the meal, Michael was given a minute assessment of everyone’s chances in the Bartonshire Constabulary promotion stakes, and by the time he was being deposited at his front door, he could have opened a book on the outcome himself. He retrieved his golf bag from the boot, slammed it shut and tapped the roof of the car, watching as the X-type Jaguar swept back down his gravelled driveway. He raised a hand in salute as its taillights disappeared from view, and smiled. He had never bought a Jag—he drove a modest Ford Focus, and it got him from A to B in comfort, so he was quite happy with that.All his adult life he had consciously veered away from the overt trappings of self-made wealth; no camel-hair coats and gold identity bracelets for him, no flashy sports cars or Havana cigars. He wasn’t about to play the part of the East End boy made good, even if he was one. His family had moved to Bartonshire from London when he was ?fteen, so the accent had been ironed out, but he was an East End boy at heart.The Grange was the only ostentation he had ever allowed himself, and it was different, because Josephine had grown up in Stoke Weston village, and her dream had been to live in the Grange, so when it came on the market twenty years ago, Michael had bought it. It sat in several picturesque acres of Stoke Weston, and had once been someone’s country house. Whoever that was had probably only used it part of the year, and that was ostentation in Michael’s book. At least he lived there all year round. But he did employ a full-time housekeeper and gardener, not to mention part-time cleaners and groundsmen, and it was a hell of a size for just him and Ben.Come to that, Ben was hardly here now that he was at university—perhaps he should think about selling. But then, Ben loved it, too; it had been a great place for a boy to grow up. He and his friends had played for hours in the woods, and the old summerhouse by the lake had in its time been everything from a prehistoric cave to a spaceship. They had camped out in it—though Michael would hardly call it camping, in something as sturdy and weatherproof as that—and it had been a self-important clubhouse for some secret society at one time. It was kept in good order, but no one used it at all now Ben’s friends were all grown up. They had held barbecues, played cricket and croquet on the lawns, messed about in boats on the lake, and everyone had had great fun. Ben might want to live here when he got married and had kids, which he would do sooner or later. No, he’d hang on to the Grange for the moment.Anyway, he liked being able to host parties and business gatherings here—he was very fond of Stoke Weston, and enjoyed showing it off. And he took not a little pride in the fact that he was a one-man job provider; wherever possible, he employed people from the village in his various enterprises. He knew who he could trust, and what capabilities they had to offer, so it suited him, and the resentment that might have been felt at this upstart in the villagers’ midst was totally absent.Fine snow began to fall, shaking Michael from his reverie. As he went into the house, he could hear Ben on the phone to someone. He had come home for the weekend for a friend’s twenty-first birthday party, and was going back tonight. Michael leaned the golf bag silently against the wall, and listened.“. . . but I’ll be gone by then, I don’t want to go without seeing you at all. I’ve missed you. I always miss you—you know that. Can’t you get the time off? Ask to leave early? Good. So you’ll meet me there? You know where they are, don’t you? No—not them. The ones on Waring Road. They’re only about five mi... Read more