Customer Reviews

Perfect Match

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This is the second Jill McGown book I've read and the first in the series. I really enjoy her writing and her plots. Many people try to write in the English cozy style, but few are that effective. It's easy to tell while reading this book, that it is written by a British person. The style of writing, the characters and the actual mystery are reminiscent of some of the great British detective writers - Christie, Allingham, Sayers (but set in a more modern setting). Affairs and sexual deviancies are common in Lloyd's and Judy's world. That being said, Lloyd is good character. He's sensitive, a little unsure of himself in his personal life, and he has a conscience. That doesn't stop him from loving his perfect Judy though. Judy is also a good character. She is not afraid to show her uncertainties and her own guilty conscience. This is a really good series, and even though I had figured out the murderer before the book was finished, it was still masterfully written and kept my interest.

Someone recommended Jill McGown to me and I decided to start where she did, at her first Lloyd/Hill novel. A Perfect Match serves as a useful introduction to the series, in which, of course, the background info is as important as the front story. Lloyd (like Inspector Morse, he's not telling anyone his true first name) is an engaging British copper with a good mind and a social life that is lacking in many areas. Judy Hill, married but nevertheless long attracted to Lloyd, is his intelligent, pretty assistant.

Together, they set to work on the discovery of a strangled woman's body in the woods which she owned. The obvious suspect is Chris, who happens to have designs on the dead woman's sister in law, and who ran away and hid when the body was found. But, in the tradition of the best English mysteries, the obvious suspect might just be TOO obvious.

So, who dunnit? It was hard to guess the method, but not the perpetrator.
This first novel is intriguing enough to hold the reader's interest to the final chapter.

Looking for a police procedural with elements of a traditional British mystery? Then this book may be a perfect match for you.

Set in the fictional town of Stansfield, Jill McGown's "novels of suspense" are a mix of character study and complex whodunit plot, served with a hearty helping of English ambiance.

In A Perfect Match, Detective Inspector Lloyd and his detective sergeant Judy Hill investigate the murder of a rich widow who might have been having an affair with her brother-in-law. The prime suspect is a man the victim had just met, a man who also has a connection to the brother-in-law.

This is the first of McGown's Lloyd and Hill books. It's relative short, but both the mystery and the cast of characters is interesting. If you've read the likes of Elizabeth George and Deborah Crombie, you owe it to yourself to track down McGown's books. She may not be as well known, but her books are definitely top-notch.