Another good one. I enjoyed the slow discovery of the murder victim's various secrets, and the plot was convoluted but coherent. Joanna has become a bit saintly and now seems to spend all her time looking after Slider's older children uncomplainingly, with the help of his even more saintly father. ( )

Another cracking Bill Slider crime story which I found impossible to put down. Even three-quarters of the way through, I had no idea why the victim had been murdered and only a vague idea who might have been responsible. Bill Slider's team is full of strong, believable characters who have been developed through the series who you care about and can visualise. The dialogue is humorous and witty and many of the locations real. I was amazed to discover one of Bill Slider's team visiting the Cock in Sarratt only a week after I'd been there myself!

The plot is extremely clever and has some common threads with at least one other of her Bill Slider stories I've read, in that a body is found about which few people seem to know anything concrete and they have hidden secrets which slowly emerge, piece by piece. In this case an apparently affluent medical consultant is found dead with a single shot in the back of his head in his own house, but with little paperwork to show who he really was, where he worked, who his relatives were and Bill and his team have to painstakingly try to build up a picture of the man to work out who would want to kill him - quite a challenge!

Highly recommended. ( )

Another book from a great series. I worked out the plot early on but still enjoy reading about the characters and their way of working. ( )

This 13th in the Bill Slider series is another winner. Ms. Harrod-Eagles could hold a book-writing seminar on how to write good, solid police procedurals. This book is inclusive enough for new people to the Slider series to read and enjoy on its own. But why would you want to do that and miss out on the excellent characters and tight plotting of this series? These books are a real treat from beginning to end. I love Bill Slider. He's an every man's copper, and sharp as they come. There's lots of light humour in the books as well, and the best example is all the "tongue-in-cheek" chapter titles in every book. And of course, there is Slider's boss Porson. He's the guy that gets all the tried and true sayings wrong with continual malapropisms, and it drives Slider and his firm to distraction, but it's amazingly funny. The puzzle in this particular book is difficult to figure out and Slider and his team have to do a lot of digging to get to the bottom of things. But with solid police work and with Slider's intelligence, they do finally get somewhere but not before the whole thing turns into an international incident. If you like British police procedurals, do not miss this book, or more importantly, this series. ( )

Love the characters and humor. ( )