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Jennie Melville - Page 2
Jennie Melville
Whoever Has the HeartWhoever Has the Heart Newpbk 31 Jan 00
Dead SetDead Set
Windsor RedWindsor Red


New Paperback - Allison & Busby (2000)
Whoever Has the Heart
Buying a house in the picturesque village of Brideswell was an impulse decision for high-ranking policewoman Charmian Daniels. Green, serene; Brideswell seemed like an ideal retreat from the pressures of work. But when the village beauty, Chloe Devon, mysteriously disappears, Charmian begins to suspect that Brideswell is not all it seems.
When part of Chloe's corpse is discovered in London, and another part is unearthed in a shallow grave in Brideswell, Charmian must heed the police maxim of 'whoever has the heart, takes the case'. So, together with local Detective Chief Superintendent Clive Barney, she determines to catch the killer.
As Charmian struggles to uncover possible motives for the girl's savage murder, she becomes troubled by the threatening atmosphere surrounding the village. Her enquiries uncover a host of demons from Brideswell's past, which must be exorcised before the villagers can sleep in peace…
'Melville delivers a zinger of a story' Publishers Weekly
‘With fine-edged brushstrokes, Melville chronicles the intelligent, ambitious Charmian's rise up the police ladder of success.’ Publishers Weekly
'Melville is a crackerjack mystery writer… the plot does plenty of hairpin turns around the quaint village characters.’ St. Petersburg Times
'A very good read’ Booklist
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Paperback - Allison & Busby (1999)
Dead Set
Ted Gray is missing, a week after he found the body of a schoolgirl. Gray seems an unlikely candidate for cold-blooded murderer, so why has he disappeared? There are strange goings on at the school where Ted and his wife used to work: a young pupil is unsettling his classmates with hysterical tales of 'double people'.
Charmian Daniels is convinced Ted holds the clue to the murder, but until she discovers more about him she is powerless to stop the ripples of violence spreading still further, powerless to stop another murder…
'Puzzles galore, which Melville plants out in her inimitable fashion, taunting the reader with glimpses of behaviour concealed from Charmian, trailing her herrings with a whispering difference.' John Coleman, Sunday Times
'Melville is terrific at building up tension' The Times
'Melville is one of the most original writers of the English mystery ever… More so than Rendell, Melville understands the uniquely English nature of a certain type of crime and the repressions of class and sexuality, and explicates it beautifully.' Peter Man, BookEnds Magazine
'The skill is (her) understanding of the freakish undertow of emotion, so peculiarly British' Wendy Lawrence, Crime Time
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Paperback - CTPublishing (1998)
Windsor Red
The first of the 'Windsor' Melvilles, and never before in paperback. Charmian Daniels, on a sabbatical from the police force, is researching feminist crime and feminist criminals, inspired by her relationship with Beryl Andrea Barker ('Baby'). She takes rooms in Wellington Yard, Windsor near the pottery of Anny, a childhood friend. The rhythm of life in Wellington Yard is disturbed by the disappearance of Anny's daughter with her violent boyfriend. Dismembered limbs from an unidentified body are discovered in a rubbish sack. A child is snatched from its pram. Headless torsos are found outside Windsor. Are these events connected? And what relationship do they have to the coterie of female criminals that Charmian is 'studying'...? All is resolved in a Grand Guignol climax that will leave the most hardened crime fiction fans gasping.
Jennie Melville is the pen name of bestselling crime fiction author Gwendoline Butler, one of the most borrowed authors in Britain under either name. This is the first time in paperback for this novel featuring her popular Police Inspector, Charmian Daniels, one of the most universally praised of police procedural series, and the first to feature a femal protagonist.
'Melville imparts a dreadful disquiet to whatever she so cunningly touches. The Sunday Times 'Bravura brew of broomstick comedy and quite unguessable whodunnit. Matthew Coady, The Guardian
'Gwendoline Butler is excellent on the bizarre fantasies of other people's lives and on modern paranaia overlaying old secrets; and her plots have the rave ability to shock ‘ Andrew Taylor, The Independent
‘Combines the uncertain world of Ruth Rendell with the gruesome attention to detail of Prince Suspect!' Crime Time
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