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Martha Gunn #2
Slipknot
Callum Hughes has been labeled a killer and a psycho. He has been labeled by the press, by his classmates and most of all by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labeled a victim. He is described by everyone that the police question as an athletic, funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. At least, that's what his friends and family are saying. But things are rarely so black and white. Coroner Martha Gunn, understands painful loss and the importance of justice for the dead. When Callum is found dead in his cell just two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he simply could not cope with his new environment and killed himself. Was such a timid and intelligent boy really capable of motiveless murder? Indeed, was he really capable of taking his own life? Martha dares to dig a little deeper, unraveling a truth that is far more disturbing and distressing than anything the papers could have made up. She is determined to solve the mystery and reveal the truth behind the destroyed lives of two very different boys.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
5 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Priscilla Masters
63 books79 followersPriscilla Masters' writing career started in 1987 when she published Mr. Bateman's Garden, a children's book set in Biddulph Grange Gardens belonging to the National Trust. After that she created Inspector Joanna Piercy and has now also written a number of Medical Mysteries.
Priscilla Masters lives in Shropshire, England. She works part-time in Staffordshire as a practice nurse.
Priscilla Masters lives in Shropshire, England. She works part-time in Staffordshire as a practice nurse.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 18, 2017
Happy to say that this novel was a lot more exciting than the first. It involved a number of topical issues including bullying, the brutality of the prison system in the context of first offenders, rookie error, and veteran officers getting a little on the side for favours. It also described the vindictive, criminal behaviour that grieving parents may inflict upon those they suppose responsible for their loss.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2019
.I found this book very disturbing, brilliant, well written, flows well. This story will Chime with mothers of teenage boys everywhere. Now onto the next.
May 11, 2015
Several hundred words into the notes I'd written, either Goodreads or Firefox collapsed. Am I going to recreate it all at this time of night?
Perhaps not.
With apologies to the author, this is a novel with an important subject that is not as well executed as it might have been. The subject's an important one: school bullying. The victim of two years' worth of vicious bullying finally snaps and stabs his worst tormentor; put on remand, he apparently commits suicide during his first night of confinement. But did he really? Coroner Martha Gunn investigates.
The publisher should have put a copyeditor and a proofreader through this to get rid of the worst of the follies. Here's one among dozens that I found:
So, amid much else, we have the quoted-quotes error plus, though it's not obvious here, an open-quote rather than an apostrophe at
never touched 'is
On page 252 we have:
Of course, it's unfair to judge a book by its typos. There were other sources of irritation, not least that there's a plot element that's clearly continued from a previous Martha Gunn novel and is unresolved by the end of this one. (Someone has been sending her mysterious messages in the form of bunches of flowers, scratched records, anonymous phonecalls. Who could it be? Ooo-er.) I imagine this is supposed to make readers insatiably curious to get hold of the next volume. It just annoyed me sufficiently that I made a resolution not to.
By the end of this book I grudgingly quite liked it. But it was a hard long haul before that.
Perhaps not.
With apologies to the author, this is a novel with an important subject that is not as well executed as it might have been. The subject's an important one: school bullying. The victim of two years' worth of vicious bullying finally snaps and stabs his worst tormentor; put on remand, he apparently commits suicide during his first night of confinement. But did he really? Coroner Martha Gunn investigates.
The publisher should have put a copyeditor and a proofreader through this to get rid of the worst of the follies. Here's one among dozens that I found:
'He admits kicking Callum on the shin but,' He grinned, 'and I quote 'I never touched 'is bleedin' face.' He couldn't say whether when Callum arrived he had or complained for any facial trauma.' (page 180)
So, amid much else, we have the quoted-quotes error plus, though it's not obvious here, an open-quote rather than an apostrophe at
never touched 'is
On page 252 we have:
Once I realised that Casper's experiments had proved that the post-mortem findings when a body had been strung up two hours after death I had a different time frame.
Of course, it's unfair to judge a book by its typos. There were other sources of irritation, not least that there's a plot element that's clearly continued from a previous Martha Gunn novel and is unresolved by the end of this one. (Someone has been sending her mysterious messages in the form of bunches of flowers, scratched records, anonymous phonecalls. Who could it be? Ooo-er.) I imagine this is supposed to make readers insatiably curious to get hold of the next volume. It just annoyed me sufficiently that I made a resolution not to.
By the end of this book I grudgingly quite liked it. But it was a hard long haul before that.
June 28, 2014
Martha Gunn becomes involved in investigating an apparent suicide in a young offenders institution. She is unhappy about it for many reasons as she does not believe it is a case of suicide at all. The victim is a young boy who knifed a fellow school mate in a playground incident. But the more Martha looks into the case the less likely it seems to her that Callum would have set out to murder the boy nicknamed Dreadnought.
Thanks to Martha's instincts she and DI Alex Randall[prove that there is more to the death than meets the eye. I found this book compelling and harrowing reading and stayed up into the early hours of the morning to finish it. The writing is low key and the characters all too believable and I found some of the book reduced me to tears.
This is an excellent series and the books can be read in any order. I recommend them to anyone who enjoys M R Hall's series featuring coroner Jenny Cooper.
Thanks to Martha's instincts she and DI Alex Randall[prove that there is more to the death than meets the eye. I found this book compelling and harrowing reading and stayed up into the early hours of the morning to finish it. The writing is low key and the characters all too believable and I found some of the book reduced me to tears.
This is an excellent series and the books can be read in any order. I recommend them to anyone who enjoys M R Hall's series featuring coroner Jenny Cooper.
September 11, 2014
This is Priscilla Master's Martha Gunn series. Martha is a coroner who is as inquisitive as a detective and uses her own skills in helping to solve mysteries. Well written and highly recommended.
May 23, 2021
Musím priznať, že anotácia vyzerá fakt veľmi zaujímavo, až to čitateľa ťahá do knihy. Lenže kniha mňa vôbec ani trochu nezaujala. Mala len 200 strán, ale asi dobré štyri dni som sa s ňou pasovala.
Príbeh ako thriller mi teda vôbec tak neprišiel. Ani neviem aký žáner by som knihe pripísala, ale ako thriller určite nie. Kniha bola veľmi smutná, pretože išlo o úmrtie hlavného hrdinu Calluma. Autorkin štýl písania mi tiež nesadol. Písala to strašne až rýchlo mi to prišlo, len aby sa tej knižky už zbavila. Kľudne to mohla rozpísať na 300 strán, a možno až vtedy by to bolo zaujímavejšie. Vlastne aby som sa lepšie vyjadrila, v knihe bol jeden z prípadov aj prípad úmrtia Calluma, až do skoro samého konca nevedeli kde je vlastne dôvod, čo za tým je, kto za tým je, a vôbec všelijaké iné prípady ktoré mali ešte vyšetrovať a zrazu, už sa schyľovalo do úplného konca, to znamená 10 strán dokonca, a zrazu autorka všetko ako keby vypľula zo seba na jednej strane.
Takéto mínusy v knihách ma vedia veľmi sklamať, hlavne keď ma kniha 200 strán, ako mala aj táto - a kľudne to autor mohol rozpísať, napísať tam ešte nejaké tie tajomstvá, zvraty, napätia a podobných iných vecí - tu som sa toho žiaľ nedožila. Jednoducho som sklamaná a ani neviem čo iné napísať bez toho, aby som nespoilerovala, tak z tejto knihy to bude len taky slabý a kratučký opis. 😃
Príbeh ako thriller mi teda vôbec tak neprišiel. Ani neviem aký žáner by som knihe pripísala, ale ako thriller určite nie. Kniha bola veľmi smutná, pretože išlo o úmrtie hlavného hrdinu Calluma. Autorkin štýl písania mi tiež nesadol. Písala to strašne až rýchlo mi to prišlo, len aby sa tej knižky už zbavila. Kľudne to mohla rozpísať na 300 strán, a možno až vtedy by to bolo zaujímavejšie. Vlastne aby som sa lepšie vyjadrila, v knihe bol jeden z prípadov aj prípad úmrtia Calluma, až do skoro samého konca nevedeli kde je vlastne dôvod, čo za tým je, kto za tým je, a vôbec všelijaké iné prípady ktoré mali ešte vyšetrovať a zrazu, už sa schyľovalo do úplného konca, to znamená 10 strán dokonca, a zrazu autorka všetko ako keby vypľula zo seba na jednej strane.
Takéto mínusy v knihách ma vedia veľmi sklamať, hlavne keď ma kniha 200 strán, ako mala aj táto - a kľudne to autor mohol rozpísať, napísať tam ešte nejaké tie tajomstvá, zvraty, napätia a podobných iných vecí - tu som sa toho žiaľ nedožila. Jednoducho som sklamaná a ani neviem čo iné napísať bez toho, aby som nespoilerovala, tak z tejto knihy to bude len taky slabý a kratučký opis. 😃
September 17, 2020
Audio- As this was only my second audio book I found the different narrator strange at first and was not keen on some of her voices for the characters and that put me off the characters. The story was good and relevant. Bullying is awful and ruins lives and this story was sad,I felt so sorry for Callum and Chelsea and Callum’s mum.I didn’t quite warm to Martha Gunn,she was a bit cold and smug but would read another book with her in it.
May 26, 2020
I read this in 2017 and did not remember it at all, but maybe because I was listening to it this time. The reading was excellent and I would like to listen to the next one in the series. I’ve liked all of the Priscilla Masters’ books I’ve read.
Martha is an interesting character with an interesting and likable work mates.
Martha is an interesting character with an interesting and likable work mates.
September 8, 2021
Martha Gunn is the Coroner in a small Historic Village
of Shewsbury. A thirteen year old boy puts a knife into another
13 boy on the school grounds. The boy who has the
knife is a quiet child. One goes to the hospital. The other
a juvenile jail. Life changes for all invoke. It is up to Martha
to figure out what really happened.
of Shewsbury. A thirteen year old boy puts a knife into another
13 boy on the school grounds. The boy who has the
knife is a quiet child. One goes to the hospital. The other
a juvenile jail. Life changes for all invoke. It is up to Martha
to figure out what really happened.
June 21, 2019
The Martha Gunn series just gets better and better. This one has a fascinating theme and continues to develop the characters we grew to like in book one I’m excited to read book 3 in the series
April 17, 2020
I'm enjoying the series
November 26, 2023
Lovely persistence on the part of Martha Gunn in solving a difficult and very sad cae of bullying being at the base of a great deal of sadness and covert criminality. I enjoyed the read very much.
January 18, 2024
Really hard to get in to, but it got there in the end. 3.5 ⭐️
July 27, 2008
Slipknot, by Priscilla Masters, narrated by Patricia Gallimore, Produced by Clipper Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
I am always amazed at Gallimore’s ability to portray male and female voices. Her male voices, whether they are detectives and doctors, or school bullies, are very well done. I forget much of the time that she is a woman narrator. In this book, Callum Hughes is the typical nurd victim, laughed at by the bullies in his class, particularly their leader, Roger Gough. It goes on for a couple of years. One day, Callum, having had enough, comes to school with a knife and when Gough starts bullying him again on the playground, he stabs him. He is arrested. Roger Gough was wounded but not dead, so, if he didn’t die, the crime would be attempted homicide and would lessen the sentence he might get, but Callum knew that going to prison would only put him in contact with other bullies as bad as, or worse than, Gough. Then, after one night in jail, Callum Hughes is found dead, with the implication that he committed suicide. Then, Gough dies as well. We have two families, the Gough family with mafia connections, and Callum’s mother, a single mother doing the best she could to raise her son, pitted against each other. And the coroner isn’t ready to write off Callum’s death as a suicide. She probes deeper to find out what really happened. A very very good book exploring yet again the dynamic between bullies and victims who finally snap.
I am always amazed at Gallimore’s ability to portray male and female voices. Her male voices, whether they are detectives and doctors, or school bullies, are very well done. I forget much of the time that she is a woman narrator. In this book, Callum Hughes is the typical nurd victim, laughed at by the bullies in his class, particularly their leader, Roger Gough. It goes on for a couple of years. One day, Callum, having had enough, comes to school with a knife and when Gough starts bullying him again on the playground, he stabs him. He is arrested. Roger Gough was wounded but not dead, so, if he didn’t die, the crime would be attempted homicide and would lessen the sentence he might get, but Callum knew that going to prison would only put him in contact with other bullies as bad as, or worse than, Gough. Then, after one night in jail, Callum Hughes is found dead, with the implication that he committed suicide. Then, Gough dies as well. We have two families, the Gough family with mafia connections, and Callum’s mother, a single mother doing the best she could to raise her son, pitted against each other. And the coroner isn’t ready to write off Callum’s death as a suicide. She probes deeper to find out what really happened. A very very good book exploring yet again the dynamic between bullies and victims who finally snap.
June 14, 2011
“Because of its awful finality sometimes death can achieve something that life never could.” –Martha Gunn, in Slipknot.
When persistent bullying pushes a thirteen year old boy over the edge, he knifes his antagonist and severely wounds him. Two days later the boy is found hanged in prison and the bully soon dies from infection. Two single mothers are contrasted. The mother of the attacker is devastated by the loss of her only child. The coroner and protagonist, Martha Gunn, is a single mother of a thirteen-year-old boy whom she has just sent to a top class football/boarding school. There’s plenty of comparison and contrast going on as a result. I found myself reading quickly to get past Martha Gunn’s introspection and get to the end.
The mystery part of the book explores the bullying concept from multiple angles and results in a reasonably satisfactory conclusion. Interesting characters are introduced and there are intriguing loose ends that I’m sure will be developed as this series progresses.
As a side note, the book is set in modern Shrewsbury, which adds interest for readers of the Brother Cadfael books.
When persistent bullying pushes a thirteen year old boy over the edge, he knifes his antagonist and severely wounds him. Two days later the boy is found hanged in prison and the bully soon dies from infection. Two single mothers are contrasted. The mother of the attacker is devastated by the loss of her only child. The coroner and protagonist, Martha Gunn, is a single mother of a thirteen-year-old boy whom she has just sent to a top class football/boarding school. There’s plenty of comparison and contrast going on as a result. I found myself reading quickly to get past Martha Gunn’s introspection and get to the end.
The mystery part of the book explores the bullying concept from multiple angles and results in a reasonably satisfactory conclusion. Interesting characters are introduced and there are intriguing loose ends that I’m sure will be developed as this series progresses.
As a side note, the book is set in modern Shrewsbury, which adds interest for readers of the Brother Cadfael books.
September 21, 2014
Martha Gunn gets involved in a 13-year-old boys death. The boy has been bullied at school by several people and just can't take it anymore. He buys a knife to defend himself and ends up stabbing one of the bullies. Unfortunately everyone lies and portrays the victim as the actual perpetrator. This leads to the 13-year-old boy being arrested for aggravated assault and possibly attempted murder should the bully die. The writer makes the reader understand the mind of the victim for being bullied and how it affects his life. This is actually a very sad book as there are no winners.
April 25, 2013
Basic, slow paced, typical Martha Gunn. The story wasn't that interesting this time. The crime happens very early on, and the things that unravel after that, didn't intrigue me enough. I like the setting and the characters, but other books of hers have been better.
July 27, 2016
Second book in this series was just as interesting a read as the first book. Like the primary character and the setting too. Sadly, I think there are only three Martha Gunn books so I will have to try the author's other series.
July 26, 2011
An intriguing complex web of crime and vengence.
May 20, 2015
Did not hold my attention.
August 23, 2016
it was ok. Just a good story.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews