Murder Has A Pretty Face - Softcover

Jennie Melville

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373260792 ISBN 13: 9780373260799

Publisher: Worldwide Library, 1991

Synopsis

The corpse was male. No one claimed him. Nobody wanted him - least of all, Police Inspector Charmian Daniels. But why did he have her name and telephone number on a card in his pocket? Several large-scale robberies of furs and jewels and a mysterious, garishly made-up woman lurking about town add to the bizarre caseload. Charmian is convinced the crime wave is somehow connected - but how?

About this title

About the Author:

Jennie Melville, a pseudonym for Gwendoline Butler, was born and brought up in south London, and was one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors. She wrote over fifty novels under both names. Educated at Haberdashers, she read history at Oxford, and later married Dr Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College. She had one daughter, who survives her. Gwendoline Butler's crime novels are hugely popular in both Britain and the United States, and her many awards included the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger. She was also selected as being one of the top two hundred crime writers in the world by The Times.

From Publishers Weekly:

Melville brings back recently widowed CID Inspector Charmian Daniels, last seen in Windsor Red . A murder and several burglaries have struck her quiet English town, and Charmian must take over both cases when her superior officer is injured. The sexually mutilated murdered man was found to be carrying a card with Charmian's married surname. The venue of the thefts--a furrier and a jeweler's shops--lead her to believe they were committed by women. Meanwhile the reader is introduced to the criminal gang: beauty-shop owner Diana King, her accountant half-sister Bee Dawson, manicurist "Baby" Barker, and her lover Phyllis (Phil) Ladbury. Charmian, a customer in Diana's shop, becomes suspicious. The stage is set for a battle of will and skill between Diana and Charmian, who appears to turn rogue. While Melville has written solid mysteries in the past, this one, sadly, lacks tension. The characterization is weak and stereotyped, with the feminist issues central to her previous books being given somewhat perfunctory treatment, aside from the central fact that the gang consists of women who are not particularly fond of men.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Worldwide Library
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0373260792
• ISBN 13: 9780373260799
• Binding: Paperback