Erasing Memory
A MacNeice Mystery
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The heart-pounding first installment of the MacNeice Mysteries, featuring a sophisticated detective solving the horrific murder of a beautiful young violinist — perfect for fans of Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series.
Detective Superintendent MacNeice is returning from a pilgrimage to his wife’s grave when he’s called to a crime scene of singular and disturbing beauty. A young woman in evening dress lies gracefully posed on the floor of a pristine summer cottage so that the finger of one hand regularly interrupts the needle arm of a phonograph playing Schubert’s Piano Trio. The only visible mark on her is the bruise under her chin, which MacNeice recognizes: it is the mark that distinguishes dedicated violinists, the same mark that once graced his wife. The murder is both ingenious and horrific, and soon entangles MacNeice and his team in Eastern Europe’s ancient grievances…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thornley's impressive debut opens when a young violinist is found murdered and left in an artful death pose dressed in her best evening gown. Clearly a macabre message is being sent, or so Det. Supt. MacNiece believes. The only lead: a murder weapon used exclusively by former Eastern Bloc hit teams. The plot thickens when MacNiece discovers the victim's father was once a highly placed microbiologist in communist Romania's Ceau escu regime. While the book starts out as a by-the-numbers crime procedural, it quickly becomes a stand-out character driven mystery. MacNiece, a brilliant detective whom the whole department admires, is still tortured over the death of his wife, and his inner demons distract him to the point that he makes errors on the job, resulting in the gruesome murder of an important witness he was protecting. MacNiece's humanness, and his squad's continued admiration of him despite his fallibilities, fuel this terrific novel as much as the tight plot does. Superb writing, complex and highly likable characters, and the occasional delicious burst of violence definitely make the next books in this series worth watching for.
