From Publishers Weekly
In 1984, after the traumatizing death of her closest friend, amateur sleuth and former reporter Lindsay Gordon left England for California. Nine years later, she finds herself back in her homeland, gathering data for her doctoral thesis. At a journalists' union conference in Sheffield, Lindsay reluctantly reenters the bullying, back-stabbing world of union politics. Shortly after she quarrels with the controversial, homophobic union boss Tom Jack, he tumbles out of her hotel room window, and the anonymous editor of the conference newspaper names Lindsay the murderer. To save her skin, Lindsay and her American girlfriend, Sophie, must unravel intricate union politics to catch the killer, who may have ties to the suspicious death that sparked Lindsay's departure years before. McDermid's (Report for a Murder, etc.) confusing plot is filled with obtuse union rhetoric, and her characters lack the quirks and complexities necessary to elevate them above stereotype. The ending provides a good surprise, but the killer's implausible motive ruins the novel's credibility. This is an unusually weak showing by McDermid, whose The Mermaids Singing won Britain's Golden Dagger for Best Crime Novel of 1995.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Lindsay Gordon (Report for Murder, 1998, etc.), a Scottish teacher of journalism now based in California, has returned to Sheffield, England, to attend a journalists conference concerned mostly with the business of unions. There's much to remind Lindsay of a conference in Blackpool nine years beforesoon after the death from cancer of her lover Frances Collier. At that meeting Lindsay's friend and fellow editor Ian Ross had died in an auto accident soon after his breakup with longtime mistress Laura Craig, who's in attendance at Sheffield nowchic and sharp-tongued as ever. Lindsay's more at ease after the arrival of Dr. Sophie Harley, her latest lover, who's to give a lecture. The entire assemblage is intrigued by the appearance every night of a gossipy newsletter that, among other things, accuses Laura of being a spy for anti-union forces and accuses Tom (Union) Jack, General Secretary of the Amalgated Union of Media Workers, of skimming union funds. All this takes a backseat when Lindsay, returning to her room one night, discovers her window smashed and the body of Tom Jack on the ground ten floors below. With Lindsay a prime suspect but not yet charged, Lindsay and Sophie proceed to play detective, using endless questions, hypnosis, break-ins, the study of secret documents, etc. Their mostly dull, repetitive moves do finally pin down the killer and even uncover the author of the infamous newsletter. Long on talk, short on suspense: McDermids fuzzy plot and the uninspired characters fall far short of some of her previous efforts. -- Copyright ยฉ1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.