Kindle British & Irish Mystery Book Club discussion

Looking for Abigail by Iain Cameron

"She’s gone, but she still wants revenge
The wife of David Hunter died in a tragic riding accident two years ago, leaving him a very rich man. Now a senior partner in a large Norwich legal firm, he is attracted to new paralegal, Abigail Graham. They date, but two weeks later she goes missing.
DS Sharma and DC Jackson are treating Abigail as a missing person. This is in spite of Hunter’s claim that she is a thief who stole money from him, and the main reason why she has absconded.
Sharma is sceptical of Hunter’s story as it is so out of character for the missing woman, but if true, is there more to Abigail than she realises?"

Link to Book on Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/4iDS8iT
Discussion Leader: Bill Kupersmith

Of course I can’t resist a Norfolk setting.

Almost 1/3 in. Abigail is an attractive character but there’s something not quite right with her. I suspect she moved to Norfolk to spy on David’s firm.

I just love it that Abigail could be object of a police search in Norwich and wake up in hospital in Ipswich with no one knowing where she is. But I gather from other detective stories that the Norfolk and Suffolk constabularies could scarcely be less in touch if they communicated only through Interpol.

After reading ten chapters of Looking for Abigail, I found the number of characters who had been briefly introduced in choppy chapters confusing. Who were the main characters? What was the plot about? If this hadn't been a book club book, I would have stopped reading at that point. The author's incorrect use of gerund phrase dependency was annoying to an old copy editor as well. I never was certain about the main character, whether it was Abigail or the woman detective Sharma. The plot would have benefitted from having a usual story arc. I can give this book only two stars.

Some years ago I had the good fortune to spend a week in Norwich visiting my brilliant niece Violet Kupersmith, who was a visiting fellow at UEA. Not only had I the opportunity to view some of the most extreme examples of the British Brutalist school of architecture, as well as a campus populated by innumerable rabbits (I hope the bunnies have not all succumbed to this new disease), but it was Holy Week and I could participate in the services at the Cathedral, which I was quite pleased figured in novel, as well as other sights I recall.

We have a partner in a Norwich legal firm specialising in property who acquired his position by inheritance when his wife was killed in a riding accident, with some rumours about that it may not have been entirely accidental. And into the firm enters a new employee, the very attractive and smart Abigail Graham, who gives this book its title, and may be just a little too perfect to be quite who she is supposed to be. My only quarrel with this this book is that I found her much more engaging and interesting than with of the detectives who are supposed to be the main characters of the series. If she reappears in another book, I quite want to read it.

Pat wrote: "After reading ten chapters of Looking for Abigail, I found the number of characters who had been briefly introduced in choppy chapters confusing. Who were the main characters? What was the plot abo..."

Yes, I do agree with you about who is the main character. As I said, Abigail is much more interesting and attractive than the police detectives. That said, I found her one kick-arse chick! I do have this thing about women who are good with knives - though only in story books.