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Hot Pursuit
A Gillian Adams Mystery
Nora Kelly
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1590580141 (1-59058-014-1)
Publication Date: April, 2002
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Gillian Adams has moved to London to live with policeman Edward Gisborne, her lover of many years. Feeling displaced, she seeks out her old friend Charlotte, once a brilliant television producer. But Charlotte is sunk in despair, and her daughter Olivia, a young actress, is fleeing from a disturbed fan who may be a dangerous stalker. London, on the brink of the new millennium, boils with traffic, money and a record heat wave. After Charlotte is found dead, events gather towards an explosive climax as Olivia confronts her pursuer and the terrible sequel to a hidden past.
Review: Hot Pursuit, the exceptional fifth mystery to feature Professor Gillian Adams, is marred only by the somewhat absurd made-for-Hollywood conclusion. Had author Nora Kelly ended the book some 30 pages earlier, it may have been one of the best mysteries of the year.
While the pacing of Hot Pursuit is rather slow and methodical, it's never dull or boring. Gillian's recollections of her friendship with Charlotte are both touching and relevant to the present. Charlotte's daughter Olivia, the stalker Kevin, and Gillian's lover Edward are all realistically depicted and believable. The individual tension experienced by these characters is unified by the oppressive heat of the London summer.
This literate, absorbing mystery makes an awkward, ill-conceived turn in its final pages that does little to add to the story and worse, damages the entire effort.
Despite its flawed climatic finale, Hot Pursuit is definitely worth reading.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing the ARC of Hot Pursuit for this review.
Review Copyright © 2002 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Other mysteries by Nora Kelly:
In
the Shadow of Kings
A Gillian Adams
Mystery
St. Martin's Press (1984)
ISBN: 0312411715
My
Sister's Keeper
A Gillian Adams
Mystery
St. Martin's Press (1992)
ISBN: 0312082681
Bad
Chemistry
A Gillian Adams
Mystery
St. Martin's Press (1994)
ISBN: 0312109342
Old
Wounds
A Gillian Adams
Mystery
Poisoned Pen Press (2000)
ISBN: 1890208280
