Death Penalties

Luke Abbott #2

by Paula Gosling

Following the death of her husband in a suspicious auto accident, Tess Leland begins to receive threatening phone calls from a mysterious blackmailer. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 10, 1992

About the author

Paula Gosling is a US born crime writer. She has lived in the UK since the 1960s. Gosling started her writing career as a copy-writer and published her first novel, A Running Duck, in 1974. This won the John Creasey Award for the best first novel of the year and she has also received both the Gold Dagger for Monkey Puzzle in 1985. She is a past Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association.

Her novel A Running Duck, written in 1974 (also published as Fair Game), has been adapted twice into films, once as a Sylvester Stallone vehicle - Cobra and the second time as a film with Cindy Crawford entitled Fair Game.

Reviews

[Greg Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot has the requisite twists and turns, several red herrings.

A woman's husband died in what was accepted as an unfortunate accident. Her son survived the car crash but has suffered repeated nightmares. A break-in, a series of threatening phone calls and a mostly immovable police force leaves her frustrated and scared. One cop, working on the case in his off time seems to believe her and that the series of events are related, not coincidences.

Not till her house is trashed, does the force come out in force. The son wanders off, and what was a slow moving mystery becomes a thriller. With the help of her son's tutor, she finds her son and escapes the deranged criminals who are bent on her disaster. All is right in the end.

[Jo Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly though it's part of the Luke Abbott series, DCI Abbot doesn't figure heavily in the plot. Tess Leland is our main protagonist and she goes through a rather trying time following the death of her husband. Quite a bit of treachery but it comes out alright in the end!

[Laura Steinert · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was 1994, so no cell phones. I enjoyed the plot very much, but too much was over described. On page 12 it occurred to me that all I knew was that two men died and all the men in the story wear clothes. Still worth reading for the plot.

[Onkardeep Bhanot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really liked the concept of the book but I don’t think it was well done. I didn’t find there to be an “investigation” happening because we didn’t rally get much of Nightingale’s perspective.

I really wanted to like this book but I had a really hard time getting through. I felt that not much was happening.

The ending was also very predictable.

[Heli - So Many Books - So Little Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ★s

An enjoyable murder mystery. I liked the characters. There's an awful lot of story packed into 260p. I enjoy not having to slog through an extra 200p. of descriptive passages & the setting up of the scene.

cover:
'Abbott knew how hungry Nightingale was. But policing was team effort, and a solitary explorer often stumbled into areas that weren't friendly to intruders. Curiosity was something that could lead to trouble...'

Sergeant Tim Nightingale, eager to prove himself a credit to the CID, decides to reopen the file on Roger Leland's fatal car crash. Who wanted him dead? Was he the intended victim?

As quickly as Leland's widow, Tess, begins to put her life back together, someone seems determined to take it to pieces again. Her son Max, taken ill at boarding school, suffers recurring nightmares about his father's accident. Now Tess fears for his safety, as well as her own...