Devils in the Mirror

DI Handford #3

by Lesley Horton

It is almost midnight on Halloween. Firefighters following up a fourth hoax call to Druids Altar, a local beauty spot high on Harden Moor, discover the body of Shayla Richards, a young black girl. The post-mortem shows that Shayla was suffocated and sexually assaulted; photographs of her body at the crime-scene suggest a ritual sacrifice. DI John and Handford and DS Khalid Ali soon discover that Shayla's past is anything but straightforward. Over a year before her death, she accused a teacher of a sexual attack while in school. Although the teacher was suspended, the case collapsed when it came to trial. The murder investigation is never going to be easy and the police find themselves caught between factions who insist the dead girl had been a compulsive liar. Yet events take a more sinister turn when Handford discovers his prime suspect seems to be a man without a past. In fact, he doesn't even seem to exist...

Genres: Crime, Mystery

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2005

About the author

Lesley Horton (1939-November 2018), was a British novelist and author of a series of crime novels featuring Bradford based Detective Inspector John Handford. Horton is a former schoolteacher who took early retirement in order to begin a career as a writer. She is also a past chair of the Crime Writers' Association.

Reviews

[Helena Frisk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helt ok

[Fictionophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel deals with the issues of racism, religion, inner-city youth and ultimately murder. The author writes of which she knows. She was a teacher in an inner-city school in the area of Yorkshire, England in which the books are set.
With a growing Asian population, racism continues to be an issue in schools AND in police work in and around Bradford.
This title was written sympathetically and the reader can't help but identify with the people from both sides of the racial divide.
The protagonist Inspector John Handford, is a professional policeman who tries not to let his personal life interfere with his investigations. However, this time his wife is a teacher at the school where the murder victim attended and he realizes that the lines between his professional life and his personal life are blurred...

Shayla Richards was just fifteen when her body was found on Druid's altar on the moor.
Of mixed race parentage, Shayla had been missing for several weeks, was a known truant and a troublesome teenager. However, she didn't deserve this!
Handford and his team set about finding her murderer, but they meet up with loads of opposition along the way...

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read. I thought that it was much longer than it needed to be and I dislike writing that describes every movement of the protagonists as it just slows the action down. I think that it was clearly based on the Jamie Bulger case. There were always two clear choices of who did what but I am not sure whether the protagonists remained constant in character throughout the plot. But, I finished the book and would recommend for a fairly pedestrian read. DI John Handford and DS Khalid Ali are okay but in this book I think I preferred Warrender!

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect much and I was happily surprised at how the novel developed into a gripping mystery. The plot twists and turns kept on delivering surprises (I actually didn't see some of them coming). This was the first book that I had read by this author and I look forward to reading more.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book in this small series.