Yorkshire reporter Laura Ackroyd finds some unsettling connections between a local election, a campaign to ""out"" elected officials, and a murder on the moor, which leads to her being noticed by both Inspector Michael Thakeray and the murderer.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
That quintessentially British institution, the brief, hotly contested by-election, forms the background for Hall's drama, in which an explosive combination of electoral and sexual politics engenders blackmail, suicide, and murder. Two complex protagonists are at the center of the tale: enigmatic Chief Inspector Michael Thackeray, newly arrived in Bradfield in the north of England, and city native Laura Ackroyd, a reporter for a Tory paper who is sympathetic to Labour because its parliamentary candidate was her college sociology tutor--and because her beloved grandmother has long been a party activist. While the local university's Gay and Lesbian Front debates "outing" closeted establishment types, Thackeray investigates the murder on a nearby moor of a former sociology student and the suicide of an eminently respectable Tory leader, and Ackroyd struggles to balance her personal and professional responsibilities. Hall, an investigative reporter and author of The Poisoned Pool (1993), has planted the seeds of a complex, involving series in this thoughtful procedural. Mary Carroll
From Kirkus Reviews
The death of the long-ailing Member for Bradfield launches sociologist Richard Thurston, his heir-apparent, into the political limelight. But another, more sinister death the same day--the murder of AIDS-stricken Harvey Lingard, Richard's old student who's come home from London to a nearby village to die (though not as soon as he did)--casts Richard's candidacy into the gravest peril. Jason Carpenter, head of the local Gay and Lesbian Front, has compiled a list of gay public figures the Front plans to out, and Richard, who's had affairs with both Harvey and Jason, heads the list. The police are convinced that Richard, who's been submitting to blackmail for years, not only killed Harvey but also offed features writer Rob Stevens, who was covering the Front's activities while trying to keep his own sexual orientation secret. Inspector Michael Thackeray is only waiting until after the election to arrest him. So it's up to Rob's editor, Laura Ackroyd, who studied with Harvey under Richard, to dig up whatever evidence she can that exonerates Richard--and keep his fading hopes of election for Bradfield alive. Though she never decides whether Laura is a detective or a spin doctor, Hall (The Poison Pool, 1993) produces a satisfyingly ugly study of English local politics. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
Patricia Hall remembers telling stories to her little sisters when she was six years old, and by the time she was in her early teens she was sure that she was going to be a writer one day. She gained a a degree in English before becoming a journalist and working for The Guardian and the BBC in London, amongst others.
On 1991 her first crime novel, The Poison Pool, was published in London and New York and this was followed by a book a year. Most feature her feisty heroine, reporter Laura Ackroyd and her on-off lover DCI Michael Thackeray. They are set in the decaying industrial towns of West Yorkshire and the nearby countryside of the Yorkshire Dales. In 2011 she launched a new series with Dead Beat, casting a sceptical eye on "Swinging London" in the 1960s. The sequel, Death Trap, will be published in 2012.
Patricia is married and now lives in Oxford. She has two grown up sons and a grand-daughter.
Visit Patricia's web-site at www.patriciahall.co.uk
On 1991 her first crime novel, The Poison Pool, was published in London and New York and this was followed by a book a year. Most feature her feisty heroine, reporter Laura Ackroyd and her on-off lover DCI Michael Thackeray. They are set in the decaying industrial towns of West Yorkshire and the nearby countryside of the Yorkshire Dales. In 2011 she launched a new series with Dead Beat, casting a sceptical eye on "Swinging London" in the 1960s. The sequel, Death Trap, will be published in 2012.
Patricia is married and now lives in Oxford. She has two grown up sons and a grand-daughter.
Visit Patricia's web-site at www.patriciahall.co.uk
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great start to the fabulous Yorkshire series,
This review is from: Death by Election (Paperback)
If you like British police procedurals, you'll love this series. Michael Thackeray is an intense, haunted DCI who finds himself attracted to a dynamic journalist, Laura Ackroyd, in a working class mill town in Yorkshire.Their attraction (and later romance)is the counterpoint to these well written procedurals. Patricia Hall catches the wonderful social nuances of class and culture in Bradfield. This is a great introduction to a wonderful series. The mystery to me is why I never heard of this author until recently. The series is uniformly well-written and they are equal to or superior to some better known British mystery writers including Elizabeth George. Give it a try. I think you'll thoroughly enjoy yourself.
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