Goodnight, My Angel See Review by
Liz Lees
See Review by
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill Shortlisted for the First Blood Award 1996 'Kate felt a chill creep over her. It's not Melanie, she told
herself. This isn't my child. It's just some kind of sadistic game . . .'
It is six months since twelve-year-old Melanie
Pearson disappeared while walking home from school. Six months since her mother was asked
to identify her battered, lifeless body . . .
Kate Pearson is only just beginning to come to terms
with her daughter's murder when a sinister message appears on her computer screen:
WHY DID YOU LET HIM HURT ME, MUMMY?
As more horrifying messages follow, Kate realises
there is only one person who could be doing this to her - Melanie's murderer . . .
Leading the hunt for the killer, Chief Inspector
Harmon focuses his enquiries on Kate's abusive ex-husband David and. her colleague,
Internet whizz-kid Adam Shepherd. Both men certainly have shadowy pasts, but could either
be capable of such evil?
For it soon becomes clear that the killer is not
content merely to hack into Kate's computer. He is out to infiltrate her life and destroy
her completely. But Kate has already lost the one thing that gave her life meaning. So
instead she will turn his evil back on itself and unmask the killer … 'Debut crime novels that can be praised unreservedly, without using terms such as "promising", are rare. Good night, My Angel mixes the traditional whodunnit and the latest in Internet technology with immense confidence. Kate Pearson's 12-year old daughter Melanie was kid- napped and killed six months ago; the perpetrator has not been found. Suddenly a message appear on Kate's computer screen: "Why did you let him hurt me, Mummy?". Other e-mails flow in, purporting to come from the dead girl; more tangible reminders of her follow. The sender - Melanie's murderer is techno-clever enough to hide his tracks; but soon the computer torture is joined by physical threat. Murphy creates terrific menace and tension, well climaxed.Marcel Berlins, The Times "It's hard to believe something this assured is a first novel. Sets new standards in the psychological thriller… A remarkable debut - threatening, thrilling and thoroughly authentic." Val McDermid
'An accomplished first novel by Margaret Murphy [who] knows how to wind up the psychological tension as confidently as many more experienced suspense writers' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'There is an assurance about the menace that makes this first book welcome.' Tom Deveson, Sunday Times
'You'll have to go a long way to read a more accomplished debut… Unputdownable.' Crime Time
Goodnight, My Angel
See Review by
Liz Lees
Goodnight, My Angel