The Headhunters

Description

Jo and Gemma are friends who meet for coffee every Saturday to gossip and discuss the state of the world. At one such meeting, Gemma mentions killing her boss and Jo goes along with the joke. But Jo is not amused when she finds a real body on the beach at Selsey soon afterwards - an unidentified nearly-naked woman, who has been drowned. It take DCI Hen Mallin and her team some time to discover who the woman is, and as they are investigating, Jo and Gemma are getting into more trouble - they keep coming across dead bodies... Peter Lovesey s thirtieth novel explores one of his favourite themes - the innocent caught up in sinister events. His previous Hen Mallin book, The Circle, was described by Gerald Kaufman in The Scotsman as this gem of a book...the superb Peter Lovesey provides yet another novel of unalloyed delight.

Peter Lovesey's novels and short stories have won him awards all over the world, including the Gold, Silver and Cartier Diamond Daggers of the Crime Writers' Association, of which he was Chairman in 1991-2. He has just won the Short Story Dagger for 2007. He lives in Chichester.

'Peter Lovesey excels in portraying ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, and The Headhunters is a splendid example... This is a very cleverly constructed mystery with well-rounded characters, and it confirms Lovesey's place in the top echelon of British crime writers' Sunday Telegraph 'Peter Lovesey has written 30 crime novels, many of them adapted for television or film; he has won loads of awards and been translated into more than 20 languages; he's hugely respected by his fellow writers, yet hasn't quite captured the public acclaim his talent undoubtedly deserves. Perhaps it's because he refuses to stick to one formula or one leading character' The Times 'A sharp little vignette of contemporary England' Literary Review 'What will especially please those who treasure puzzle mysteries is the ingenuity of the plot. Lovesey has figured out how to update the traditional mystery while retaining the features that made it so entertaining. The characters are thoroughly 21st century, but the mode is pure 1930s. All the clues are there and presented with admirable fairness I was absolutely certain I knew whodunit. I was absolutely wrong, and I loved it' Reviewing the Evidence 'Peter Lovesey is one of the UK's most consummate authors and you know that whenever you pick up a book by him that you are bound to be enthralled. In his latest novel The Headhunters this is no exception' Shotsmag.co.uk 'Lovesey remains one our finest English mystery writers' Crimetime.co.uk