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The murder of an unidentified five-year-old girl in a shabby London street leads Superintendent Richard Jury to suspect well-known financier Viktor Baumann, owner of an iniquitous house on the same street that serves as the hub of a pedophilia ring. When a second unidentified murder victim--this time a woman is found in the gardens of Declan Scott's estate, Commander of the Devon and Cornwall Police, Brian Macalvie, thinks there is a connection. Three years prior, Declan's four-year-old stepdaughter, Flora, was abducted. Jury and Macalvie rake over the present and the past in a pub near Launceston called the Winds of Change. All signs point to the guilt of Viktor Baumann, Flora's biological father. But, when no one in this case is exactly who he seems, how can Jury be sure?… (more)
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* All of her titles are pubs in England.
good but UGH — again
Richard Jury embarks on the darkest investigation of his career when the dead body of a young London girl leads to the cold case of a missing girl in Launceston-an unsolved mystery that has haunted Police Officer Brian
For once, a relatively happy ending. As usual, children are deftly deployed throughout the novel.
There is suspicion that the child’s biological father may have arranged it, but there
The child’s mother died about six months after the disappearance. The only one left is her stepfather.
To help investigate, Jury calls on his friend, Melrose Plant, to take the part of a landscape specialist as the gardens at Angels Gate, the estate of the stepfather, are being restored. Melrose does some quick reading to give him a smattering of knowledge to play the part.
The body of a murdered woman is found on the property of Angels Gate. There is nothing to identify the woman and no way to connect her to the previous kidnapping.
The clues are elusive and don’t seem related, but then maybe they are, subtle but there. It isn’t easy to join the clues up for the solution. I did find myself going back over earlier pages to see the connections and come to a conclusion. I enjoyed that.
"Brian Macalvie of the Devon and Cornwall police takes this failure especially hard, since he had headed up the
"Scott's step-daughter has vanished. His wife Mary has died.
" 'He really doesn't need a body in his garden,' says Macalvie, as he looks down at an unidentified woman murdered in the gardens of the Scott estate, Angel Gate.
"And on a shabby London street, another child lies dead. When Richard Jury bends over the body of the little girl, he knows this will be one of the saddest investigations of his life.
"Saddest, and most serpentine, for Flora and this child appear to be connected, and in the worst possible way -- by an iniquitous house in North London.
" 'It's these little kids. It's what happens to them ... Why should the have to pay for what we do? ... What I do, what I try to do, is put myself in that place, in their place, you know? Feel what they must fell. Terror. Like that.'
" 'Maybe you shouldn't go there, Macalvie.'
"Macalvie looked down at the dregs of his drink. 'Neither should they.'
Joined by the intrepid Melrose Plant, now a gardener at Angel Gate, Jury and Macalvie rake over the present and the past in a pub near Launceston called the Winds of Change. In a case where the victim is as hard to identify as the murderer and where no one is exactly who he seems, how can Jury be sure that he himself hasn't been duped in some game of illusion?"
~~front & back flap
A lovely mystery, as all the Jury mysteries are. And definitely serpentine. Galore with bad guys, women with several personas, a nasty woman running a degrading house, and of course Declan Scott -- searching for his lost stepdaughter.
Jury slowly unpacks layer after layer, working towards a surprise ending that was under his nose all along. Brilliant.