The arrival of the Irish rock star Mavis Mahar in the quiet town of Hillston, North Carolina creates quite a stir. For the local police, it’s one more headache. Two months previously the body of a young woman had been found, her corpse mutilated, tagged and addressed to Lt Justin Savile Vand Police Chief Cuddy R Mangum, and they still have no clue to her identity.
When a second death occurs, the media are quick to suggest a serial killer is loose in Hillston, and still Cuddy and Justin Savile have no suspects. The killer begins to taunt Justin and Cuddy, leaving messages in their homes and cars, and the media dub the killer, ‘Guess Who’. Goaded, Cuddy Mangum makes a rash promise to the people of Hillston and in doing so increases the pressure on himself and Justin.
As they investigate the second death, evidence links to the possible involvement of the Governor and Cuddy is thus torn between his police duty and his desire to protect at all costs his secret love, the Governor’s wife. And when Justin unexpectedly encounters Mavis Mahar he is attracted, dangerously so, as wife is away visiting family in the mountains.
My confession is that I only ordered this book because it was read by Jeff
Harding, whose reading I so enjoy ,and who did as I expected his usual marvellous
job that brought all the characters to life. I particularly enjoyed his interpretation
of Cuddy Mangum. I did however, find the story fascinating, and I enjoyed the
writing, and in particular the sparkling repartee of the Cuddy Mangum character.
Thanks to Jeff Harding I will now be seeking out the other books in the series.
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Lizzie Hayes
Other books in the series are Handling Sin, Uncivil Seasons and Time's
Witness