Customer Reviews

Headhunters: An Inspector Hen Mallin Investigation

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I've read many Peter Lovesey mysteries over the years. I think I read all of the Cribb/Thackery books, and I've read a number since then. For whatever reason, the author seems to go through phases: when he began writing, everything he did was Victorian. He moved up through the 20s, did a book or 2 in the 40s, then moved up to the modern era. This current book is apparently part of a more recent series involving a female police detective named Henrietta "Hen" Mallin.

The first odd thing that Lovesey has done here is write a book that's part of a series, and a detective story, but isn't totally from the detective's point of view. Instead, we start the story out meeting the woman who finds the body (and who turns out to be central to the plot). The story follows her for a while, then switches and follows the police as they try and discover who has killed the mysterious woman whose anonymous corpse has washed up on the beach.

When the plot finally reaches a conclusion, I have to say it wasn't as believable or fun as other of Lovesey's books have been. I didn't hate it...it just wasn't his best. The new character is a bit mundane, also, and Lovesey's as British as he ever was, using slang and jargon with no regard for the American ears his words might fall on. I would only recommend this book to those interested in the author.

I've liked CDI Hen Mallin in The Circle & The House Sitter. She seems a bit harder to like in this one in which she's the star--even when her relationship with her chief asst. Stella is strained a bit. Still, she's not the curmudgeonly Peter Diamond either. The story revolves around 4 people--The Headhunters & their interactions. It also shows how off-base the police can be & (not unusual in mystery novels) how assumptions can easily mislead one into very wrong conclusions. I thought the ending interesting though I had figured out the culprit by then. There's also a bit of dark humor scattered throughout. The very end tries to explain how the killer could rationalize the murders--the ultimate narcissism IMHO. To me this is one of Lovesey's better efforts. I do hope to see Hen & Stella again in future Lovesey works.

There are a number of fine "literary" quotes in this book too. My favorites are: pp. 67-8: "Put him in the lion enclosure wearing a zebra suit. Dose him with laxative & stand him on guard @Buckingham Palace," p. 72: "People, Jo thought. The ones who are most fun are the least reliable," p. 76: "But when your legs are shaking & your last meal wants to make a comeback, you're not best placed to offer an intelligent remark," & the pub p. 141: "The Slug & Lettuce." Hah!

The latest in the Inspector Hen Mallin series brings forth an unusual story, especially so since it shows how she can leap to wrong conclusions {along with the reader) based on clues both obvious and murky. But the show must go on, and she, along with her police team, plod along from clue to clue in this peculiar but intriguing novel.

It begins with a double date during which one of the women brings up the subject of her boss at a printing works. She says he tries to portray himself as the "good guy," leaving her to do the dirty work. She brings up the possibility of murdering him, and the other three join in jokingly with various methods for the "perfect murder." Then the other woman, taking a walk along the beach, discovers the first of three bodies. Later she's in on the find of two others. All three victims have been forcibly drowned.

The number of suspects abound, as Hen Mallin leads the investigation, inevitably along several false leads. One of the possible suspects is the boyfriend of the woman who found the initial body (before she tripped over the other two). From the initial case on it becomes clearer that there is a serial killer loose. The plot development is so quirky, the reader is kept off balance throughout, right up to the unanticipated denouement. The writing is spare and the story moves along swiftly. Recommended.

I am a long-term fan of Lovesey, and I particularly like Hen Mallin, so I was really waiting for this book to come out. It did not disappoint me at all. I love the way Lovesey builds characters as he has done again in this book. His depiction of the four friends in the Headhunter group is gripping, and it makes the reader feel a part of it all. Lovesey always maintains a balance of humour with suspense, and he does that again here. He is truly one of Great Britain's best fiction writers. His books are written like a finely choreographed dance. Each character has a part to play, and we watch as the story unfolds. And he uncovers truly chilling villains in his books. This one is no exception to that either. Excellent!

Lovesey's feisty, cigarillo-smoking Inspector Hen Mallin series is not as acerbic and witty as his Inspector Peter Diamond stories, but a crime novel from Lovesey is still a clever treat.

Third-person viewpoints alternate between Jo Stevens, an underachiever contentedly employed in a garden center, and Mallin, who suspects - rightly - that Jo is not telling all she knows about the dead woman on the beach.

The story starts with Jo and her more outgoing friend Gemma plotting ways to kill Gemma's boss - all in fun, of course. When the girls - still in fun - swap dates, Jo finds herself unexpectedly attracted to Gemma's awkward, brooding beau, Jake. Hoping to "accidentally" bump into Jake on a morning beach walk, Jo instead discovers a half-naked corpse tangled in seaweed.

When Jake is implicated, Jo decides to do some sleuthing herself, and is soon neck-deep in dangerous secrets, not the least of which is a second drowned woman.

Meanwhile Mallin's frustrations are building, between identifying the original body, trying to find the connections between her and the second body, and sorting out the mere liars from the likely murderers.

The tension builds as complications baffle and Jo digs herself a deeper, darker hole. The conclusion is neatly, excitingly done, although the final explanation is a bit of a stretch.

I still love the mystery novels of Peter Lovesey even though this one doesn't measure up with his best. I had this one figured out by the third chapter. I would have enjoyed this one so much more if there would have been a deeper analysis of the Henn Mallin character. She is a flawed character in the mold of Jane Tennyson and I would enjoy seeing more of what makes her tick (or what makes her tick intermittenly). Lovesey still ranks up there with the best of the British mystery writers with his ability to present a crime as a critique of modern society and all of our pitfalls.

Near Selsey, Jo Stevens saw what she thought was a beached dolphin amongst the trash that came ashore on the beach. However, she got closer and realized she found a half naked woman dead amidst the seaweed and garbage. Chichester CID Inspector Henrietta "Hen" Mallin and her team lead the official inquiry starting with who she is and whether her death was an accident or a homicide.

However, before the cops can dig into the case, Jo finds a second corpse eerily similar to the first one she reported. This time she fears telling the cops because the coincidence is too weird and she would become the prime suspect of two murders. She fails to inform the police. When the body is reported, Hen and her subordinates focus on Stevens and even more on her boyfriend who knew both victims.

THE HEADHUNTERS is a unique English police procedural as the storyline rotates points of view between the inspector and the corpse finder; especially fascinating is reading the logical rationalization of Jo when she fails to report the second dead body to the authorities. Fans will appreciate this diamond of a tale as Hen and her CID team works on solving the two homicides while also seeking her first investigation (see THE CIRCLE).

Harriet Klausner