Blood Red Sky by
Neil Gibb
hbk out January 99
Published by Piatkus
at £16.99
Alex Brierley is a television news reporter who is eager to cover the serial killings which are taking place in Nottingham. Her boss, Harry, has other ideas and takes her off the story. He tells her that the story is out of her league and gives her instead the job of following up the death of a Doctor Fisher at a rehabilitation clinic, the Kallman Institute. It is a particularly gruesome murder. Dr Fisher had been taped to a chair and beaten almost beyond recognition. The intruders had also tried to get into the drugstore, but had failed, though some prescription pads had been stolen. Alex is keen to do well and makes friends with a woman called Jill who works at the Institute. Jill is prepared to help and passes on information which puzzles Alex. It concerns a pharmaceutical firm called Numen. This firm has recently been taken over by a Japanese conglomerate called Kogai which has thus acquired the global rights to any new product being developed by Numen. The dead man, Dr Fisher, had been working on a new product and he is dead. Then Jill is killed and Alex begins to wonder about this new product and whether the deaths are related. Has something gone wrong with the product? Why, otherwise, should Dr Fisher and Jill have been killed?
Alex begins to probe into the Kallman Institute, but is set upon and savagely beaten. She is warned off: stay away from the Kallman Institute. Acid in the face is the least she can expect if she goes on. Nevertheless she continues to probe and it soon becomes clear to her that something has gone wrong with the new product, that Dr Fisher had warned Mumen and they had panicked and embarked on "a damage limitation exercise", first Fisher was killed, then Jill, and now Alex, who knows too much, is in danger.
This is a carefully plotted mystery. The author switches confidently from one point of view to another, including the serial killer, and gradually the strands of the plot come together. There is an exciting climax. Alex is a very attractive heroine and as the book is said to be "An Alex Brierley Investigation" it rather looks as if this may be the first - is it the first? - of other such investigations. If they prove as enjoyable as this many readers will not be disappointed. My only complaint is the way in which the sky, whether blue or blood red, is drawn into the narrative. It is all a bit laboured.
Blood Red Sky by
Neil Gibb