The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale [Mass Market Paperback]

Jill McGown (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd (1997)
• ASIN: B000OCG7J2
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unique characters and intelligent story, October 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this book. Jill McGown's characters are simply unique. Contrary to many other successful women crime writers, her main characters are portrayed as down to earth persons, who do not have fancy jobs or hobbies. They have their bad days and their good ones, can be agressive or unreasonable - and that's what makes them so human. Chief Inspector Lloyd ( no firstnames, please) and Inspector Judy Hill are a most unlikely couple and sometimes hillariously funny. In addition, you really will want to know who did it and this is extremely hard to guess. I would recommend this book to everyone who likes British characters.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the best plotted mysteries I've read in a while, April 3, 2006

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Murders of Mrs. Austin and Mrs. Beale (Mass Market Paperback)

I was stunned by the "whodunit" ending -- it came out of left field and yet it was all there in front of me and I had missed it. I read a lot of mysteries and can often guess the culprit but although there was a little bit that I was right about, most of it I just missed.

The plot is complex but not so complex that you can't follow it, in part because there are a limited number of characters. Two murders of well-heeled women take place in the same area (neighboring towns in England) on the same night -- and the two victims (who don't know each other) have been talking on the phone that night. Police Detective Inspector Lloyd is heading up the investigation of the first murder discovered -- a talented artist who has married for money -- and his live-in girlfriend Judy Hill, who has recently transferred to a new jurisdiction because of their relationship, is heading up the other murder -- a woman with a streetwalking past who is married to a man known to have a history of very shady business activities.

Did the same person kill them both? How are the killings related (if they are)? What was the motive or motives? This is a cozy in the sense that the list of suspects is reasonably short (spouses, boyfriends, etc.) and it's a question of puzzling out what happened that night -- talking to witnesses, recreating the night, etc.

This is my first by this British author but I intend to read more.

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget the reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews above, January 22, 2012

By 

Reader in New York (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Murders of Mrs Austin and Mrs Beale (Paperback)

The plotting in this book is absolutely outstanding. When the solutions come at the end, they are based -- as the Inspector puts it -- not on any new information but on information that they had all along.

All the hints are there and open for the reader to see. When the Inspector explains all, the reader is left to kick himself for not having caught all (or even any) of the clues.

Fair is fair, and this is one of the best.