Death Trap
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
Kate O'Donnell, fresh from her adventures in Dead Beat, discovers yet again there's a darker side to London in the Swinging Sixties.
Beatlemania has reached London, but young photographer Kate O'Donnell soon discovers a darker side of the city when a prostitute is found murdered off the Portobello Road. A West Indian immigrant, Nelson Mackintosh, is arrested, and simmering racial tension reaches breaking point. Convinced of Nelson's innocence, Kate determines to track down the real killer. But when her activities attract the attention of notorious gangster King Devine, not even Kate's old sparring partner DS Harry Barnard can ensure her safety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An underdeveloped lead mars Hall's otherwise solid sequel to 2011's Dead Beat, set in the early '60s. Photographer Kate O'Donnell, who's moved to London from her hometown of Liverpool, where she was an art college classmate of John Lennon, is pleased to have landed a new job. The uglier side of life intrudes when Notting Hill neighbors of Kate's are menaced by thugs in the employ of their mysterious landlord, who wants to force them out so he can sell the building. Despite the threat, the police refuse to intervene, but Kate reaches out to a friend on the force for help. Meanwhile, the shutterbug involves herself in trying to clear a West Indian man accused of murdering a prostitute. Hall does a nice job of delineating the seedy underbelly of Beatles-era London, but she fails to distinguish Kate from countless other similar plucky heroines.
