A Dirty Death [Hardcover]

Rebecca Tope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2000

When irascible farmer Guy Beardon meets a very dirty death in his own farmyard, it seems like an accident at first, despite the fact that he was widely disliked. But when his daughter Lilah slowly begins to suspect foul play, no one is eager to help her investigation. Suspicion becomes certainty when two more deaths occur, both of which are unmistakably murder...

The difficulty lies in discovering who among the farmer's many enemies hated him enough to want him dead and then went on killing to conceal the truth. Could it be the disagreeable vicar? The self-absorbed widow? The crusty Wing Commander? The too-good-to-be-true freelance computer whiz? No one wants to get involved, and even the ubiquitous village gossip seems to know more than she will admit...

Set amidst the muck and mayhem of contemporary farming life, A Dirty Death is an entertaining and authentic crime debut.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This assured, densely textured novel, set in rural England, hardly seems a debut effort. The Beardon family farm, Redstone, gets by quite handily under the guiding hand of Guy Beardon, a passionate man known for his intellect and an acidic tongue that keeps neighbors at a distance. Sam Carter, a former student of his, is now his chief aide. Guy's wife, Miranda, and son, Roddy, provide minor assistance, while daughter Lilah is the apple of his eye and a major helper. Guy's awful death in a slurry pit at the beginning of the tale appears to be an accident, but further violence suggests it was not. His demise begins an unraveling of life at Redstone that threatens to overwhelm its inhabitants. Tope takes what appears to be a list of stock charactersAa stalwart RAF type, the local vicar, a bickering couple, the doltish farmhand, an adulterous wife, the town gossipAand imbues them with fresh definition. And shrewdly, she offers neither a clever police detective nor a bumbling one. Except for Constable Den Cooper, who provides Lilah a romantic foil, the police stay mostly in the background while Tope's large and memorable cast play out their parts with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Only after an intruder murders a neighbor do Lilah and the police reconsider her father's recent demise in the family farm's manure pit. Lilah's widely loathed father, much older than her mother and obsessed over his farm, bought land from the neighbors and had an earlier family that nobody ever discusses. Lilah and the youthful police detective gather a few clues here and there that eventually lead to the murderer. The typically quirky English village characters, circumscribed locale, and deceptively simple plot reveal a natural talent. A most promising debut; for all collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (June 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312261446
• ISBN-13: 978-0312261443
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,576,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars so-so mystery, May 18, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Dirty Death (Hardcover)

What an awful way to die. In spite of his warnings to his children over the last fourteen years about how unsafe the slurry pit is, farmer Guy Beardon somehow drowned in the disgusting muck. His twenty-year old daughter Lilah, who discovered the body, is stunned by the tragedy as is her brother and mother. Police officer Denholm Cooper rules the death was caused by a nasty accident.

Two more related deaths follow, which leads Cooper to reassess his original position. Someone apparently is out to get the Beardens and anyone associated with the family. Den, who is beginning to fall in love with Lilah, starts making inquiries. Several suspects surface who loathed Guy, and the culprit will murder again if necessary to protect his or her identity.

A DIRTY DEATH is an intriguing English rural police procedural novel that will entertain sub-genre fans especially with its insight into modern farming. The story line is interesting although careless editing hurts it at times. Lilah, Den, and Guy come across as fully developed charcaters, but the rest of the cast seems flat. Still, Rebecca Tope shows much talent that will encourage readers to want to obtain future novels by her.

Harriet Klausner