Dead Alone by
Gay Longworth
pbk out September 02
(HarperCollins)
at £9.99
For the first few dozen pages, I didn't think I was going to like this book.
It was a bit too 'trendy' for me, with young blonde Detective- Inspector
Jessie Driver, who wears tight leather trousers, rides a big motor-cycle
and has a colourful love-life, fond of partying and night-clubs. Yet soon
the quality of the writing got to me and in spite of the complex and
unlikely plot, it began approaching the 'un-put-downable' category. Even
the forensic curiosities like the 'cerebral vertebra' and ammonia being a
constituent of sulphuric acid failed to put me off.
Briefly, the story concerns a series of apparent murders of a bizarre
nature amongst the arty poseurs who appear on chat-shows and in the
weekly magazines that expose the scandals of 'personalities'.
An ex-convict who has done his time for murder, is now a cable TV chat-
show compere and seems to be pursuing a de-bunking campaign against
such folk, bring himself well into suspicion.
Jessie is conned by a jealous male colleague into investigating a partial
skeleton in the Thames mud near Richmond. It was meant to be a wind-
up, as bones are found in the river almost daily, but Jessie susses this out
(by the serial numbers on the silicone breast implants which were
mistaken for jellyfish) to be the murder of the wife of a well-known pop-
star millionaire, PJ Dean. She falls for his charms, in spite of the fact that
he could be suspect Number One. The plot thickens as another arty fraud
is found pegged out dead in Richmond Park and later yet another guy is
found drowned in his own cess-pit.
A parallel plot concerns the daughter of the man who is the nasty
compere; she is unhinged by the consequent suicide of her mother and the
disappearance into care of her brother.
A racy tale well worth reading, though the suspension of disbelief that is
required in most thrillers is taken a little 'over the top' towards the end of
the book.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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Dead Alone by
Gay Longworth
