Death Duties by
Phil Lovesey
pbk out March 99
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
Phil Lovesey’s first novel hinges on an old killing: in 1969, a seven-year-old girl in Malden, Essex, killed her father, apparently for the best of motives. The ramifications of this action ripple forward into the present, when an old lady is found murdered in her own home, her face plastered with make-up. And the murders aren’t over yet.
Three officers who were involved in - and scarred by - the 1969 killing are drawn from their very different worlds into investigating these contemporary murders. Lovesey pulls together the various strands of his narrative into an ambiguous and often powerful debut, which is as interesting for what it promises as for what it delivers. Phil Lovesey is shaping into a writer worth watching - and worth reading.
(
Andrew Taylor
- author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series)
Death Duties by
Phil Lovesey