Picture of Innocence (Large Print) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jill McGown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999 | Series: Thorndike Mystery

East Midlands farmer Bernard Bailey, a violent man with a brutal temper, stands to pocket a hefty inheritance if he fathers a male child. After destroying one wife to achieve this end, Bailey turns his next marriage into a twisted business arrangement. If his new spouse produces a son, she will be paid handsomely for her trouble. But the real trouble is just beginning.

After six months of receiving highly publicized death threats, Bailey becomes just another statistic--a bloodied corpse discarded on his secluded farm. But the unusual question for Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and Detective Inspector Judy Hill is, Why wasn't the monster killed sooner? For Bailey aroused murderous passions in just about everyone, from the abused daughter of his first marriage to his second wife's clandestine lover. Beneath the obvious lies a labyrinth of deceit--and the shocking truth lies deeper still. . . .

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Balancing the personal and the professional side of an ongoing relationship has always been one of the hardest tricks to pull off in a mystery series. Nobody does it better then Jill McGown, whose books about Welsh police officers Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd (like Morse, he never uses his first name) and Detective Inspector Judy Hill deserve much more attention than they've received so far. "They were in her flat, which was highly unusual, but it had been the only way he was going to get to see her watch herself on television for the first time," McGown writes in a typically terse moment of revelation. "He resisted coming to her flat very often; it seemed to him to be sanctioning their private lives. But she had refused point-blank to come home with him this evening, so he had turned up here just before her debut, relieving her of the remote control as she had threatened to turn off the TV." When the brutal owner of a large farm gets death threats and then is murdered, suspicion naturally centers on his gorgeous young wife--who married him strictly for the money she would get if she bore him a son. But the dead man's abused daughter has plenty of motive, and a rising TV interviewer who seems intent on ruining Lloyd's career is also a likely suspect. Two other Lloyd and Hill books available in paperback: Murder...Now and Then and Murder at the Old Vicarage. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The death of East Midlands farmer and landowner Bernard Bailey from booze, drugs and a dull knife leaves an excess of suspects in this meticulously detailed and lushly atmospheric addition to McGown's series starring British coppers DCI Lloyd and DC Judy Hill (Verdict Unsafe, 1997, etc.). The list includes Bailey's routinely battered second wife, Rachel, who so far had failed to produce the male heir that would bring Bailey the proceeds of a significant inheritance, and Bailey's grown daughter, Nicola, the local vet who had also felt her father's wrath. A wealthy builder, Mike McQueen, has made a handsome offer for Bailey's land and has an eye for Rachel's charms. Rachel, however, is sleeping with Curtis Law, a local TV journalist who is working on a number of stories and has an active role in a drug sting operation. The abundance of motives in Bailey's murder proves perplexing for Lloyd and Hill, who are also lovers and whose relationship is challenged during this case. McGown gives Bailey an unlikely Yorkshire accent of almost cartoonish bluntness and struggles some to make Rachel a magnet for every male in her range. Yet McGown's latest Lloyd and Hill mystery possesses a wealth of psychological nuance and narrative depth, all the way through to the resolution, a masterpiece of controlled complexity.
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

• Hardcover: 602 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786216700
• ISBN-13: 978-0786216703
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,486,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel, the best in a series, May 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Picture of Innocence (Hardcover)

Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and Detective Superintendent Case are investigating the death of East Midlands farmer Bernard Bailey. The police quickly realize that there are many suspects who had motives and means to murder the abusive landowner. Bailey's wife Rachel was a victim of spousal abuse as he constantly battered her for failing to produce a male heir. Bailey's adult daughter was also a victim of her sire's truculent nature. Than there are those outside the family such as Rachel's lover Curtis Law and a builder Mike McQueen who coveted Bailey's land. As Lloyd and Case struggle with their own relationship, they also find the complex case becoming even more difficult to resolve.

The seventh Lloyd and Hill mystery is a wonderful British who-done-it because of the deep psychological insights into all the characters, which in turn provides a plethora of potential culprits. Though Rachel is a bit of adisappointment as a protagonist, Jill McGowan insures that her book exceeds its title (PICTURE OF INNOCENCE) with a complexity rarely seen in a mystery novel, let alone a British cozy. This series is worth reading in its entirety, but this particular novel is either the best or at a minimum within the top three books of the Lloyd and Hill mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it the Best in the Series?, April 26, 2003

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Picture of Innocence (British Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Ms. McGown gets better with each book in the Lloyd/Hill series, so it's hard to say it's the best since I have yet to read her last three. But this book is certainly the best so far! Ms. McGown is an incredible writer! Her books are complex and wickedly intelligent. Her characters get better too. Rachel Bailey is totally wonderful! And pay attention to her titles. They always mean something integral to the story. In this book we have a murder victim that no one wants to see revenged. Bernard Bailey was a monster - to his daughter, his wife and everyone that he dealth with. Who really cares who killed him? Well Lloyd and Hill need to find out and they have more clues and suspects than they know what to do with. Can they put them all together, separate the wheat from the chaff? And if they can, can they then provide the correct evidence to send the killer to prison? Do they want to send the murderer to prison even? Bailey was a grade A cad, and the world will be a better place without him in it. Read this awesome book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worst book I ever finished, July 9, 2002

By 

Linda Higgins (Canton, MS USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Picture of Innocence (British Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

The only good thing about this mystery is that it is a real page-turner. She does manage to write in such a way that one wants to keep reading to find out what happens. I do like Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill. But that's all I can say that is good. I knew I wasn't going to like it early on when the drug dealer comes to Curtis Law's apartment carrying a gun, and Curtis says he hadn't expected that. I mean, duh? Then there's Rachel. So beautiful that every man that sees her wants to take her to bed, so talented that she manages to decorate her home beautifully, and always dresses in gorgeous clothing. She's also very smart, supposedly able to figure out what everyone is doing and thinking. She's spent all these years with the rich and famous, but has never picked up even a modicrum of grammar. And, poor thing, the only way she can make a living is to sleep with anyone who can offer her anything. If she's that beautiful, don't you think she could be a model either for clothing or some girlie magazines. She's a slut for goodness sake! None of the characters were believable, but she was the worst. I only finished it because it was a selection of my book club, and all but one of those members thought it was awful, and definitely not worth reading.