This is the ninth in a series of adventures about Ingrid Langley and Patrick Gillard, and I feel surprised that I have not read any of them before. The previous experiences of these two are touched upon occasionally during the book and the background of Patrick’s work as an army Lieutenant Colonel, his wife Ingrid’s novel writing and MI5 work for both of them is dealt with expeditiously. I enjoyed the well-conveyed Englishness of the book’s various scenarios - in London, Devon and the Home Counties, for example, and the modernity of the settings and peripheral characters.
The basic situation in this book is that Patrick has left the army and is technical advisor for an American film company producing a film concerning an undercover operation in Northern Ireland which had gone seriously wrong leading to the death of several British operatives. The story is told by Ingrid who finds herself investigating serious threats to the film company personnel including her husband after the star’s stand-in has been executed.
I read the book quickly since it swept me along very effectively but I did
find that the deliberate blurring of the identity of the person responsible
also blurred that person’s character for me even at the end. The sense of vague
menace was very effective, the action scenes were well done and Ingrid was an
appealing narrator. ---------------
Jennifer S. Palmer
It took me some research to establish the titles of previous books in the Gillard
and Langley series and their chronological order; the first was published in
1987 and I would think these earlier titles are now out of print. The others
in the series, chronologically: Murder of Crows, Death of a Raven, Brass Eagle,
Who Killed Cock Robin? Rook Shoot, Gallow’s Bird, A Hanging Matter, Dead Trouble.
Margaret Duffy has also written some standalone titles and has a smaller series
of spin-offs about Inspector Carrick from in the Gillard books.