Customer Reviews

Plots and Errors

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

I love Jill McGown's books and I'm a real fan of Lloyd and Hill, but this book is a bit too much. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but it just got a bit too complicated with the plots and counterplots, blind and double-blind. This did take away from the story somewhat. In this book we have a lot of murders and it's up to Lloyd and Hill to try to connect them all and to determine motive and opportunity for each of them. At first a couple are found dead in their vehicle in their garage, apparently from suicide, but there are a number of "little Puzzles" about the deaths. Why are their groceries put away in the wrong cupboards, for example? Then there is another body - this time a very rich matriarch, found shot in her home. Lloyd and Hill, in their quest to find the killer encounter a truly disfunctional family and enough hate and animosity to sataisfy anyone looking for motive, but all is not as it seems. It just takes a little too long for the reader to get to the solution this time.

I stumbled upon this book, not having heard of Jill McGown. But it was a happy accident. I'm not much of a fan of British police procedurals (too convoluted) but I was completely taken by this book, particularly her literary device of changing the timing in the various acts. It caught me by surprise, I didn't think I'd get into it and ended up fascinated. Unfortunately, by the last 1/4 of the book, I was tired of the plot twists and was reminded again of why I don't much like this genre.

The Forensic Medical Examiner calls for Deputy Chief Inspector Lloyd to visit the scene of an apparent double suicide because he once worked with the dead woman. Lloyd arrives to see the deceased Kathy Cope holding the hand of her dead spouse in a so-called loving gesture. He rejects the evidence because the Kathy he knew was a fighter and survivor even if that happened to be two decades ago.

Other discrepancies soon appear. The groceries were placed on the wrong shelves. Though the Copes were broke, they just purchased office equipment for Kathy's new detective agency. Kathy's first client, the wealthy widow Angela Esterbrook is found dead too. Lloyd and his colleague (and lover) Judy Hill think the coincidence is too far out, leaving the two police officers to dig deep in excavating for a devious killer.

British author Jill McGown cleverly uses a chronological series of murders and subsequent investigations to relate most of the story line of PLOTS AND ERRORS. Abruptly, Ms McGown uses a flashback to detail the murders and motives. Surprisingly, this plot device works due to the ability of the writer to pull her audience into the error free, chilling, but exhilarating plot.

Harriet Klausner

I, too,was looking forward to another Lloyd and Hill mystery and enjoyed the beginning 72 pages of the "police procedural" but I was dismayed to discover that on page 77 I was going to be thrown backwards in time into the world of the "already dead" via a series of long flashbacks. After groping my way through the next fifty or so pages, I realized I was being given way WAY too much information via these flashbacks, and that they were going to go on and on ... and on. I wanted to discover all about the crimes and the characters involved in these intriguing murders ALONG with the police and other "outside" characters. Why oh why are we being forced to choke down more and more massive volumes of 500 pages that could (and should) have been written with greater clarity, crispness and tension in under 300 pages? Terribly disappointing. Even strong writing is weakened by lengthy over-written repetitive passages such as the ones in this novel. Too bad. I had to quit half way through. I just didn't care enough to keep plugging on.

#10 Lloyd & Hill British police procedural mystery. In a complicated, multi-faceted plot, some member or members of the wealthy Esterbrook family have killed off the matriarch, the principle heir, a "rent boy" that one of them was seeing, and the private investigators hired by one of them to catch out the heir in an adulterous tryst. But who? Those with apparent motive don't seem to have had the opportunity, and vice versa. Following trails of false clues carefully laid down, Chief Inspector Lloyd, DI Hill and Sgt. Finch must figure out which clues are real and what errors the killers made in their planning. Not an easy task, with several red herrings and stinky sardines along the way. LOL

I enjoyed this book a lot. McGown has an interesting way of laying things out by first going through the discovery of the various murders, then back-pedaling to a month before with tales told from the POV of the principals in the crimes, and then back to the investigation. Sometimes that ploy works and other times not, but in this case it was a gripping thriller that I was never sure about the solution to right til the very end. Only two left to finish the series since the author died in 2007 and will write no more. I am often amazed that this wonderful author has not received more attention and accolades.

I discovered Jill McGown through an Amazon recommendation and am I ever glad I found her! Her detectives, Lloyd and Hill, are by turns witty and brilliant and always very likable; her plots are deviously cunning.

McGown uses an unusual style for this tale. After giving the reader five corpses in the first 50 pages, she then takes one back eleven weeks earlier and begins to unearth the secrets of the Esterbrooks, an extremely wealthy, extremely dystunctional family. Additionally, McGown structures the book like a play, with multiple acts and scenes.

This is not a straightforward story; it requires that the reader pay attention. Despite all the misdirection, McGown never cheats; she even has one of the characters warn "Never trust anything an Esterbrook says."

McGown has become one of my favorite mystery writers, and "Plots and Errors" is one of her best.

I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW MUCH YOU NEED TO READ THIS SERIES FROM THE FIRST TO THE LAST. EACH BOOK IS A MASTER PIECE IN PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT. HER CHARACTERS NEVER STRAY FROM THE PERSONALITY SHE HAS PRESENTED THROUGH OUT THE SERIES. IT'S A PAGE TURNER THAT KEEPS YOU GUESING TO THE LAST CHAPTER!

THE BUILDING RELATIONSHIP OF HILL AND LOYD IS WORTH THE PRICE OF THE BOOKS!