Plots and Errors

ISBN: 0345433130

Author: McGown, Jill

Condition: Used

Amazon.com ReviewThere's nothing cute or coy about the relationship between Jill McGown's two high-ranking British police officers--Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd (whose first name has never been mentioned) and Detective Inspector Judy Hill of the (fictional) Bartonshire cop shop. They have been together for many years, and still maintain separate residences. She is smart and ambitious, determined to succeed on her own, even though her present unplanned pregnancy might slow things down; he is supportive but secretly wishes for a more old-fashioned kind of relationship. They know each other well: she tolerates his smugness and flair for dramatic effect; he appreciates her cool logic and occasionally brilliant insights. Together, Lloyd and Hill make up one of the most interesting and believable detecting duos in current crime fiction--the kind of people you can actually imagine having dinner with.In Plots and Errors, McGown uses that hard-earned believability to anchor a complicated story as full of plot twists and false leads as any Agatha Christie play. (She even constructs it like a play, with acts and scenes set off by appropriate quotes from Hamlet).The book opens with the suspicious suicide of two middle-aged private detectives, Andy and Kathy Cope. A short time later, their only client, a member of the wealthy (and dysfunctional) Esterbrook family, is found murdered. It seems all the deaths are somehow connected. As we shuttle between the Esterbrook family estate in Bartonshire to a yacht anchored in Cornwall, we rely on the solid comfort of Lloyd and Hill to help us achieve closure. --Dick AdlerProduct Description"Without breaking the conventions--and restrictions--of whodunit plotting, McGown always manages to people her books with characters who are entirely believable, fascinating human beings. This is a rare skill, which should be more widely recognized. Jill McGown is one of the most seriously underrated crime novelists around."--The Times (London)When Andy Cope and his wife, Kathy, owners of a struggling detective agency, are found dead in their car--peacefully holding hands and apparently asphyxiated--Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd rejects the majority opinion that they committed suicide. His theory, that the Copes were murdered, receives serious consideration when their one clients, wealthy Mrs. Angela Esterbrook, is shot to death. Why would someone with her sort of money employ an untried agency to carry out an investigation? That's just one of many puzzles that Lloyd and his partner, Judy Hill, confront in a case that defies reason.In fact, the entire super-rich Esterbrook family is a puzzle; Angela, the controlling matriarch, now dead; son Paul, with his compulsive amorous pursuits; Elizabeth, Paul's edgily suspicious wife; stepson Josh, the family black sheep; and the beautiful but inscrutable Sandie, a young woman both sons find very attractive.With the megamillion Esterbrook fortune hanging in the balance, multiple murder is perhaps inevitable. For the curtain is just now rising on a tragedy of Shakespearean grandeur. But no one, not even the cunning killer, anticipates how the plot will take on a lethal life of its own--beyond everyone's control.Jill McGown's darkly brilliant novels are as mysteriously layered as life itself, as precisely calibrated as a fine pistol. Plots and Errors is her most intricate creation to date.Review"A DAZZLINGLY DEVIOUS TANGLE OF CLUES AND COINCIDENCES . . . RICH FLAVOR."--Chicago TribuneFrom the Paperback edition.From the Inside Flapt breaking the conventions--and restrictions--of whodunit plotting, McGown always manages to people her books with characters who are entirely believable, fascinating human beings. This is a rare skill, which should be more widely recognized. Jill McGown is one of the most seriously underrated crime novelists around."--The Times (London)When Andy Cope and his wife, Kathy, owners of a struggling detective agency, ar