No Good Deed by
Lynn S. Hightower
hbk out April 98
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
at £16.99
As far as fifteen year old Joelle Chauncey was concerned, she lived in
paradise. A doting father, two cute little sisters, and an arrangement with
the horse farm next door that allowed her to ride to her heart's content.
Then one afternoon, Joelle and a horse disappear without trace. Within
hours, the owner of the farm is brutally attacked.
For Cincinnati homicide cop Sonora Blair, it's about as puzzling as it
gets. Are the two events connected? How can they not be? Was the kidnapper
aiming at Joelle or the horse? Is anyone what they seem? And can she
balance the conflicting demands of caring for her own two children and the
requirements of an investigation that seems to need more than she has to
offer?
Lynn Hightower has created her own sub-genre, bringing taut psychological
suspense to the police procedural and producing a hybrid that is invariably
tense and terrifying while never straying far from the practicalities of a
formal investigation. No Good Deed is an all-too credible examination of a
psyche so twisted that nothing touched by it can ever be straightforward.
Sharp, shocking and shamelessly satisfying.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
No Good Deed by
Lynn S. Hightower