Death By Analysis

Kate Baeier #2

by Gillian Slovo

Covers creased. Orders received by 3pm Sent from the UK that weekday.

Genres: Crime, Fiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

About the author

Novelist Gillian Slovo was born in 1952 in South Africa, the daughter of Joe Slovo, leader of the South African Communist party, and Ruth First, a journalist who was murdered in 1982.

Gillian Slovo has lived in England since 1964, working as a writer, journalist and film producer. Her first novel, Morbid Symptoms (1984), began a series of crime fiction featuring female detective Kate Baeier. Other novels in the series include Death by Analysis (1986), Death Comes Staccato (1987), Catnap (1994) and Close Call (1995). Her other novels include Ties of Blood (1989), The Betrayal (1991) and Red Dust (2000), a courtroom drama set in contemporary South Africa, which explores the effects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Reviews

[Velvetink · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Slovo's early works in the Kate Baeier series. Not a bad yarn but dated. I think she is more well known for her memoir of growing up in South Africa.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really engaging, a well-crafted story that does what it says on the tin (providing the tin says "detective story set in the disillusionment of the early 80s political atmosphere with a subplot of the current generation's obsession with analysis" and not "saxophone player occasionally solves crimes").

Towards the end it began to rely a little too heavily on coincidences to wrap up the plot threads, like characters Kate needed to see just knocking on her door, but overall it was a good, solid, not-too-melodramatic detective story with a really sound setting.

[Alison Forde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in 1981, this was kind of nostalgic, with a background of riot torn Britain and the Lady Di/ Charles wedidng, as well as the general political mood of the time. Brought me back to my teenage years. The detective story was ok - I'm sure Gillain Slovo has written much better things since then though. There were long passages where the protagonist reflected on her experience in psychotherapy - so dull and tortuous it would be enough to put anyone off ever going to a psychotherapist.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insights into radical psychotherapy as well as therapy for political activists, New Agers, and feminists in Thatcher’s Britain. We get a much better understanding of our hero Kate, too. The mystery is solved after much distraction.