Plots and Errors [Paperback]

Jill McGown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2001

When Andrew Cope and his ex-policewoman wife Kathy, proprietors of an unsuccessful detective agency, up to their necks in debt and on the verge of losing their home, are found dead in their fume-filled car, there are few who doubt that they have simply taken the easy way out. But DCI Lloyd knew Kathy Cope, and doesn't believe she was a quitter. Besides, where did she get all the state-of-the-art office equipment? Why was her shopping put away in all the wrong places? Even her last case is a puzzle. Just why would a member of the super-wealthy Esterbrook family have employed her? When DI Judy Hill is called out to the murder of matriarch Angela Esterbrook, Lloyd's doubts appears to be vindicated; and the Copes' apparent suicide turns out to be just the curtain-raiser on a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions ..."Superior mystery fiction." - "Publisers Weekly". "Plots, counter-plots, false trails, elaborately constructed alibis, a jigsaw of a crime novel...Well worth puzzling over until the last piece falls into place." - "Yorkshire Evening Press".

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There's nothing cute or coy about the relationship between Jill McGown's two high-ranking British police officers--Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd (whose first name has never been mentioned) and Detective Inspector Judy Hill of the (fictional) Bartonshire cop shop. They have been together for many years, and still maintain separate residences. She is smart and ambitious, determined to succeed on her own, even though her present unplanned pregnancy might slow things down; he is supportive but secretly wishes for a more old-fashioned kind of relationship. They know each other well: she tolerates his smugness and flair for dramatic effect; he appreciates her cool logic and occasionally brilliant insights. Together, Lloyd and Hill make up one of the most interesting and believable detecting duos in current crime fiction--the kind of people you can actually imagine having dinner with.

In Plots and Errors, McGown uses that hard-earned believability to anchor a complicated story as full of plot twists and false leads as any Agatha Christie play. (She even constructs it like a play, with acts and scenes set off by appropriate quotes from Hamlet).

The book opens with the suspicious suicide of two middle-aged private detectives, Andy and Kathy Cope. A short time later, their only client, a member of the wealthy (and dysfunctional) Esterbrook family, is found murdered. It seems all the deaths are somehow connected. As we shuttle between the Esterbrook family estate in Bartonshire to a yacht anchored in Cornwall, we rely on the solid comfort of Lloyd and Hill to help us achieve closure. --Dick Adler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A DAZZLINGLY DEVIOUS TANGLE OF CLUES AND COINCIDENCES . . . RICH FLAVOR."
--Chicago Tribune


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (February 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330355724
• ISBN-13: 978-0330355728
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,011,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars left egar for the next, October 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Plots and Errors (Hardcover)

Jill McGown is on the top ten list of my favorite authors and one of five whose books I'll pay full price for just to get my sweaty little palms on it that much faster. I've read reviews of Plots and Errors that critisize Ms. McGown for the fact that there is so little of the wonderful Lloyd and Hill relationship in this book and that the plot was too 'convoluted'. There is a part of me that agrees, but I think it is a problem more in the reader than in the book. I have been so looking forward to the possiblities inherent in the fact that there is a baby on the way, and all that Ms. McGown could do with this, that I was disappointed that this side plot had not moved very far forward. I believe, therefore, that any disappointment I felt with the book is based on that alone and will not be present the next time I read it. The author is a truly gifted storyteller and I highly recommed all of her works. A relationship in books, movies, and TV like that between Lloyd and Hill is rare indeed and would make me want to read about them even if there was not also a first class puzzler of a mystery included at no extra charge. I have always been particularly good at answering the question of 'who done it' and take a certain amount of pride in that fact, but I have yet to latch on to the killer in one of Ms. Mcgown books before she reveals him or her (or them) herself. I can't even claim that she cheats and doesn't let the reader in on all the clues, because she just flat out tells her readers 'who done it' and I still don't know until the end. If Ms. Mcgown should happen to read this review, I what to say thank you for many hours of pleasure and that I am looking forward to the next installment.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Page-Turner!, May 14, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plots and Errors (Hardcover)

I consider myself to be a serious devotee of the British mystery and I thought that I had read every plot scenario every devised for that genre until I read the latest devised by Jill McGown for Lloyd and Hill. Although the relationship between them is given very little attention, the dysfunctional Esterbrook family makes up for that shortcoming. Just when you think you have it figured out, she throws you another curve. I read continuously for seven hours and can honestly say that I haven't read a mystery I have enjoyed this much in a long time. Don't miss it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!, April 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Plots and Errors (Hardcover)

I liked the twists in this one, although she almost lost me with the plot, within a plot, within a plot, within . . . Jill McGown just keeps getting better! My one complaint is that she did not further develop the Lloyd/Judy Hill affair, overtly anyway. But the subtle developments leaves me holding my breath for more. Soon, please!