|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
A man is being tortured in hopes he will reveal the location of "Sophie". But he doesn't know who Sophie is, so he can't give his torturers the answer they want. For two days, he is tormented by three unknown men, until, finally, the torturer tells the two who hired him that he will do no more, since obviously, the victim really doesn't know, and to kill the man and dump his body. They have no more need of him and he could possibly identify them by their voices if he lived. He is shot and put into a dumpster, but the night is cold, so his bodily functions slow down, and the next morning, a man and his dog find the mutilated body of Daniel Hood. He is alive, but barely. Elspeth Brodie Farrell comes to the office of Detective Inspector Jack Deacon with a strange story. Brodie finds lost things for people. Usually what she finds is a lost pet, or a piece of crystal to make a matching pair, or some other inanimate object. However, late the week before, a woman had bought the photo of a young fair haired man to her and had spun a yarn that the young man had conned her out of lots of money. She asked Brodie to find the man, who turned out to be Daniel Hood. Brodie feels guilty, since she apparently fingered Daniel to his tormentors. Daniel is unconscious, but Brodie convinces Deacon to take her to him in the hospital. She goes home and tells her neighbor, Marta, who also takes care of her four year old daughter,Paddy, the story and about her guilt. Marta, a Polish emigre, a Catholic, tells Brodie to go right back to the hospital and tell Daniel what she did, to confess. Feeling silly talking to an unconscious stranger, Brodie does, and when Daniel awakens, she tells him the story. He is stronger emotionally than he appears and they become friends. As Daniel begins to recover, they begin to search for the perpetrators of this assault on his person and the reasons therefor. The characterization of the two protagonists is very vivid.. They are both exceptionally strong personalities and make a superb working team. Although in the end they do find the evildoers, the ending is equivocal. The dust jacket says this is the first in a series featuring Brodie Farrell. I hope Daniel is part of the series also. Bannister's series of police procedurals set in the fictional Northern English town of Castlemere has long been one of my favorites. The Brodie Farrell series is off to a strong start also.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2002
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
