The Death of Amy Parris by
T.R Bowen
pbk out February 99
(Penguin)
at £5.99
Amy Parris was lost at sea in a yachting accident. But when her body turns up on a desolate Norfolk beach a year later, two people know that there is something very wrong with this picture. One is a killer and the other is dead within days. The police soon identify and charge a suspect, and the case looks watertight.
Then ex-cop turned criminologist John Bewick is hired by the defence. Bewick soon realises that the evidence uncovered by his friend and former rival DCI Gio Jones is not as consistent as it at first appeared. With the help of forensic scientist Sally Vernon, Bewick's investigation soon provokes a cycle of violence that reveals the love, the hate and the lies that touched the life of Amy Parris.
T.R.Bowen has an impressive list of credits as a scriptwriter of TV mysteries -- Lovejoy, Miss Marple, Inspector Alleyn and the recent The Cater Street Hangman so it's no surprise that his first novel is a fast-paced and tightly plotted thriller that is driven by dramatic action sequences and realistic dialogue. Even if Bewick is a little too much the superman, this is still a riveting read.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
