Eve of Destruction [Paperback]

Martin Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

Martin Edwards . . . writes terrific crime novels about Harry Devlin, a charming but down-at-heel solicitor with bruised emotions, a nice line in self-deprecation, and a penchant for Mersey low-life."—The Guardian When Liverpool solicitor and detective Harry Devlin takes on a client who has been taping his wife's telephone conversations with her lover, he gets more than he bargained for. The first mystery is the identity of Becky's boyfriend, whose voice Harry finds oddly familiar. Then, as a case of adultery slides frighteningly into conspiracy to murder, a trespasser makes a shocking discovery: three dead bodies in a converted church. Who are they? Who has killed them, and why? Trapped in a maze where neither victims nor apparent culprit are who they seem to be, Harry must go into the dark places of the human heart to find the answers.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Harry Devlin is a likable fellow who loves a mystery. When Stephen Whyatt, a successful British designer of garden mazes, comes to Harry for advice about how to rid himself of an unfaithful wife without jeopardizing the successful landscaping company he co-owns with his violence-prone brother, the Liverpool solicitor's curiosity is piqued. The plot thickens when Harry hears the incriminating tapes that Whyatt has secretly recorded; the voice of Becky Whyatt's lover, with whom she's conspiring to kill her husband, is strangely familiar to Devlin. By the time he places it, both the illicit affair and the incipient murder plot have begun to unravel. Or have they? When Becky herself is found murdered in a gruesome bloodbath, suspicion falls first on Stephen, and then on Becky's first husband. But don't be fooled by the labyrinth into which Devlin is drawn. Eve of Destruction is a tidy little British mystery in which the plot takes second billing to Devlin--a complex, self-deprecating, and slightly down-at-the-heels antihero--who's a lot smarter and more interesting than any of Edwards's other creations. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Harry Devlin is a younger Rumpole, a lawyer based in Liverpool instead of London but with similar tastes in offbeat criminal cases. His steadier partner, Jim Crusoe, says that "for Harry Devlin, even a bus ticket promised a plot twist," and this fifth book in the series (though the first to be published here) is a jaunty, atmospheric outing just begging to be made into a film for A&E. Devlin is hired by Steven Whyatt, a twitchy man who designs garden mazes, to prepare divorce proceedings against his adulterous wife, Becky. As evidence, the wronged husband produces telephone tapes of Becky and her lover?whose voice Harry recognizes, but is not at first sure from where. Turns out the man is Dominic Revill, an unctuous executive headhunter who lives with his wife, child and nanny in a deconsecrated church. When Revill, Becky and the nanny are found murdered in the former church, suspicion veers between Becky's first husband (a mental patient with a history of violence), Steven's equally violent brother and Steven himself. While trying to win the love of a reluctant lady lawyer, Devlin sorts out the real killer almost by accident. But any lack of plot credulity is more than made up for by some excellent Liverpool jokes (e.g., the sign on a door that reads "THIS DOOR IS ALARMED," next to which someone has scrawled "AND THIS WINDOW IS BLOODY WELL TERRIFIED."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039333774X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393337747
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,870,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime writer whose fourth and most recent Lake District Mystery, featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind, is The Serpent Pool, published in February 2010. Earlier books in the series are The Coffin Trail (short-listed for the Theakston's prize for best British crime novel of 2006), The Cipher Garden and The Arsenic Labyrinth (short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year award in 2008.) He has written eight novels about lawyer Harry Devlin, the first of which, All the Lonely People, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year. In addition he has written a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense, Take My Breath Away, and a much acclaimed novel featuring Dr Crippen, Dancing for the Hangman. The latest Devlin novel, Waterloo Sunset, appeared in 2008. He completed Bill Knox's last book, The Lazarus Widow. He has published a collection of short stories, Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other stories; 'Test Drive' was short-listed for the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2006, while 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' won the same Dagger in 2008. A well-known commentator on crime fiction, he has edited 16 anthologies and published eight non-fiction books, including a study of homicide investigation, Urge to Kill .In 2008 he was elected to membership of the prestigious Detection Club. In his spare time he is a partner in a law firm and blogs daily at 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, August 23, 2000

By 

Lev Raphael - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eve of Destruction: (A Harry Devlin Mystery) (Hardcover)

Harry Devlin's a Liverpool lawyer who's also a "recidivist amateur sleuth....as keen on mysteries as some people are on sex." He can't help his passion for solving mysteries: violent or unexpected death has been part of his experience since he was a little boy. In Eve of Destructionit comes to him--improbably--through tape recordings.

Liverpool is "England's largest village" so Devlin's used to running into people he knows. But even he's surprised when a client seeking a divorce plays Devlin tapes he recorded of his wife on the phone with her lover. Devlin recognizes the man's voice and starts his own investigation without telling his client what he knows. Before long everything starts to come out in the wake of brutal murders which point directly at his client.

Devlin's client is a landscaper with a talent for building mazes, and Devlin finds himself lost in a maze of lust and rage. Eve of Destruction is an engaging no-frills mystery with characters you can care about and an enjoyably complex plot.

Lev Raphael, author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, the 4th Nick Hoffman mystery.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vedy vedy interesting, August 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Eve of Destruction: (A Harry Devlin Mystery) (Hardcover)

Bank Manager Mark Brown sends nursery owner Steven Whyatt to Liverpool solicitor Harry Devlin, in order to obtain legal advice on a matrimony problem. Steven unequivocally states that his spouse, Becky, is having an affair with his evidence being the cassette tapes from his wire tapping their phone. Though his potential client does not recognize the voice of Becky's lover, Harry does. He knows the other man is Dominic Revill, a staffing consultant.

Since Harry's firm is about to lose their receptionist anyway, he goes to Revill on the pretense of hiring the man to fill the vacancy. However, what seems to be a simple case of marital infidelity takes a twist when Becky, Dominic, and a nanny are found murdered in a church and his client is the obvious suspect.

If readers are willing to take a leap of faith, they will absolutely enjoy EVE OF DESTRUCTION. The story line is intriguing as the identity of who is doing what to whom remain a mystery in spite of the evidence to be found in the tapes that Harry listens to throughout the book. Harry is a wonderful character even though readers will wonder how he could naively accept at face value his client's Still, Martin Edwards has scribed a fabulous tale due to Harry's battered, but still ticking personality tossed inside a Rubik's Cube.

Harriet Klausner