Sheila Quigley (1947–2020)

This is probably the best in the Lorraine Hunt series. Full of twists and turns and turmoil and mystery.

My favourite part of this book is how real everything is. From everyone in a household crowding round the window to watch a police raid across the road (don't turn the light on or they'll see us watching!) to a daughter pushing the boundaries with a father she never knew she had.

The romance in this book builds slowly with the adult characters, but the teenage characters have exactly the show more right amount of young-impulsiveness that lets them love so freely and eagerly.

The crimes are gruesome and horrific, with a twisted killer and some unexpected deaths. Sheila Quigley is not afraid to kill some pretty awesome characters, who you think will hang around for at least a whole book. These deaths are shocking but just add to this already pretty amazing book.

One more to go, and I'll be quite sad when I get to the end of this series. I started reading it in high-school and it's stayed with me easily these past six or seven years. show less

DETECTIVE stories have come a long way in the past century, becoming more realistic, but at the same time losing a lot of fun. Living on a Prayer is plausible and well-written, but with none of the escapist fantasy of Agatha Christie.

Sarah Quigley writes intelligent prose in a lower-middle-class milieu: her detectives are not misogynistic cocaine users, mustachioed Belgians or plump bespectacled Catholic priests. They are policemen and women.

And her coppers, unlike the eccentric and show more Oxbridge aristocrats and intellectuals beloved of so many English authors, are as ordinary and lower-middle class as the people whom they both police and protect.

No Golden Age murder mystery full of mansions, nobs and yobs, Living on a Prayer is a fascinating glimpse into the society and concerns of Little Britain.

Quigley makes it quite clear what class of person she is writing about by attempting to reproduce vernacular speech in her dialogue; the constant substitution of “yer” for “you” grates by the end of the first page, and is an unnecessary challenge for the reader to continue with what is basically a good book.

Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt is battling to come to terms with her divorce: the man she loved and married in good faith is gay. To make matters worse, she has fallen for her sergeant, beautiful black Luke Daniels — but can she ever trust a man again?

Hunt is harassed by single mum Debbie Stansfield, who refuses to accept that her son Richard committed suicide; and there has been an increase in the incidence of minor theft in the area, including a break-in during which a night watchman died — murder or accident?

Richard Stansfield's friends are also uneasy about his apparent suicide: on the face of it, the youngsters have nothing in common, except two have eating disorders — Melissa is obese, Niall bulimic — and two are abused — Rachel is systematically raped by her stepfather, Kurt is beaten by his mother — and all have recently been recruited into a cult.

Although it might sound like kitchen-sink drama, akin to the sort of TV soap opera any of the older women in this story might watch while, fag clamped between their lips and a nice cuppa to hand, they do the ironing, it is more than that. A subplot deals with a fairly likable group of men who, unable to get employment, put jam on the family bread by smuggling cigarettes and lager.

While customs and excise might clamp down on them, Hunt does not take cigarette smuggling too seriously; she works in a police station and in a precinct in which smoking is common, and regarded as a very minor evil. But when Richard's friend Melissa is murdered and Rachel goes missing, Hunt is determined to put a stop to whatever evil is preying on the teenagers of her area.

Although the subject matter is unsettling, Quigley's book might be too full of romantic complications and emotional vulnerabilities to appeal to a masculine readership. But the several subplots are neatly integrated into the final solution and the book also gives a far more realistic view of the mores and concerns of today's England than the more erudite and elegant thrillers of many other writers. show less

The best thing about these books is that you do not need to read them in order. They are good as stand alone books.

But if you read them as a series, in order, you will experience something different. Sheila Quigley doesn't forget the characters of her previous books, and even minor ones make an appearance in this one.

This book has EVERYTHING. A dangerous cult, poisonous relationships, murder, drug smuggling, illegal importation, growing romance, mystery, crime, thriller... But it's NOT too show more much. It's perfect.

I strangely cared for some of the criminals - it was the locals doing the booze/cigarette run. Their hearts were (mostly) in the right place even if I did think it unnecessary to have to illegally sell cigarettes and alcohol to get by - surely just giving up smoking and drinking themselves would help? I was glad with the way that whole situation turned out though, Jacko has a heart of gold in this book too.

I loved the colloquialisms, but I think some people might struggle with them, especially if they don't know the accent and pronunciations. show less

Quite a readable story. The layers of the characters is quite interesting and often assumption will get you in a wrong mindset!

Kerry is 16 and a runner, Lorraine is a detective inspector and they're brought together when one of Kerry's sisters is kidnapped. This scrapes the underbelly of UK society. The end is a bit pat and wraps things up a little too nicely but the characters are decently drawn.