Payback

Thames Valley Mystery #21

by Clare Curzon

This latest from genre veteran Clare Curzon makes a thrilling addition to this entertaining series.

Sandy Craddock witnesses his detested half brother deliberately mown down by a hit-and-run driver outside his place of work, and he guiltily assumes that he himself was the intended victim. Convinced the killers will strike again once they discover they’ve targeted the wrong man, Sandy goes on the run, leaving his boss to wrongly identify the heavily bandaged and comatose Warren Laing as his missing employee.

In a daze, Sandy takes refuge in Warren’s luxurious apartment. However, it isn’t long before a mysterious woman turns up at Warren’s home and takes charge of Sandy’s complex situation, enrolling them both in an arts course in an isolated castle. When one of the students is murdered, Sandy realizes he’s in too deep. But how can he distance himself from the enchanting Fiona, who has her own secrets to hide, or explain to the police why he’s impersonating his critically injured brother? Caught in a web of his own making, Sandy realizes he is opening himself up to more danger than he could ever have imagined.

Superintendent Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley team must unravel the web of deceit in the present, while also under pressure to solve a cold case resurrected from the past.

Genres: Mystery

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Eileen-Marie Duell Buchanan (1922-2010) was a British author who specialized in writing literature belonging to the mystery, suspense, or detective genre. She wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including Marie Buchanan, Marie Duell, Clare Curzon and Rhona Petrie. She studied French and psychology at King's College in London.

Reviews

[Catherine Woodman]

I really like this series, but this one had a few too many twists in the plot for my taste. One 1/2 brother (Sandy) is targeted for a hit-and-run but the other 1/2 brother (Warren) gets mistaken for him. Sandy is the older, illegitimate, less successful brother, and he decides to take on the persona of the sibling who is in the hospital in order to hide. And gets entangled into a mess that Warren is a part of. He gets discovered by Warren's friend, Fiona.....who actually falls for Sandy, continues to aid and abet his deceptions, and has a secret of her own...and another sister/sister disappearance gets underway...when the review talks about a web of deception they omit the fact that a number of them share genes. I found the book a little disjointed as well, although that might just be my reading of it. I would read another in the series (not like the Stephanie Plum series, which I have seriously and sadly given up), but not highly recommended--if you haven't read another one of this series I would start there.

[Mascanlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a new series to me. I usually love British procedural but this one I just plowed my way thorough in determination to finish. Don't know if it was the plot, the police characters or the characters in this volume. Not a bad book but it just didn't grab me and hold my interest. So now I have to decide if I want to search out another book in the series and give Superintendent Yeadings and his team another chance.

[Kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm looking for a new mystery series but this won't be it. It wasn't badly written but was too breezy and superficial for me.