Mike Ansell witnesses a hit-and-run accident and is prepared to give evidence at the trial. The driver first tries to buy his silence, then threatens him and prepares to go further still. What can Ansell do in these circumstances when the police seem powerless to protect him?
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
British author Ashford bases his new thriller on the sense of ethics guiding Mike Ansell, his wife Brenda and Detective Inspector Brice vs. the venality of one Stephen Poulton. Refusing to get "involved" in compromising circumstances, Poulton affects ignorance of a hit-and-run accident he happened to glimpse--as did Ansell, who instead helps the victim and cooperates with Brice (in charge of the case). Both witnesses find a note, enclosing 1000, and warning them to silence; Poulton pockets his while Ansell turns his own bribe over to the police. But the price of their good citizenship is set and demanded by crooks, who beat Ansell and abuse Brenda viciously, then threaten to kill them if they don't quit talking. Detective Brice suffers too, racing demotion for "wasting time" on a minor case. As Ashford tells the story in his carefully measured prose, the reader ponders the point: Does crime pay? Are the Ansells and Brice foolish and Poulton wise, living like a sybarite on easy money? Cynics may disagree with the story's rather ambiguous conclusion.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Here, covering many of the same moral concerns as his A Question of Principle, Ash. ford (a.k.a. Roderic Jeffries) uses a hit-and-run incident to mull over truth, justice, duty, and the question of whether the end justifies the means. Pudgy, honorable Detective-Constable Brice has two eyewitnesses to a car/cyclist collision - Mike Ansell, a company lawyer; and Stephen Poulton, a cut-comers entrepreneur. Ansell reports a bribe for his silence; Poulton does not; ditto with telephone threats. Then both men's homes are broken into; Ansell's wife is sexually debased while he is coshed helpless. Brice's superiors cling to textbook procedure, while he and a young trainee zero in on a trio of thugs and the gent who gives them orders (and has terrorist activity to cover-up). Ansell, no longer a secure idealist, fights back, and Brice institutes a frame-up to break the case. Poulton, meanwhile, continues to wheel and deal to his best advantage. A low-key, subtle study of principles put to the test - with a shade-too-graphic perversion sequence and an overly speedy, reaching, wrap-up. Interesting, overall, but a notch below compelling. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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