Customer Reviews

The Big Payoff

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A very clever tale of a low-paid secretary (Anna Peters) who discovers her bosses at New World Oil are up to no good. As in the works of Polish sci-fi author Stanislav Lem, Law wraps some biting social commentary in a taut, well-paced and jazzily written mystery. If this book was put back into print, it would be something of a period classic-something on the order of a "Foxy Brown." The first of a series of adventures featuring the rather unusual Ms. Peters.

The Big Payoff, originally released in 1976, is the first - and perhaps best - novel in Law's long-running Anna Peters mystery series. Starring one of the genre's most fully realized female detectives, Law's novel seems oddly prescient today considering this generation's new-found fascination with smart, hip sleuths.

Despite plumbing a genre that might seem dated - that of the "evil business conglomerate" (in this case the New World Oil corporation) - Law's novel never breaks stride and reads as fresh today as it did some 25 years ago. In fact, had this novel been released today by a younger author with a promotional push, it might become a modest hit.

As it is, the Big Payoff deserves to move beyond its status as a cult classic (Law's novels are a modest favorite among the library set; first editions tend to command modest prices) - it is a fine detective novel with a bold central character that still has resonance.

Others in the series worth checking out: Under Orion, Gemini Trip and the kooky Death Under Par, one of the funnier novels about golf and murder.

Anna Peters was one of the first of a new kind of mystery heroine who has grown older gracefully during her career. This first novel also captured the spirit of a big match soccer day in Scotland, an unexpected bonus.