The Hostage Heart

May 21, 2012
Harrod-Eagles’s love of the English countryside shines through in this light contemporary’s details of rural life, but the story doesn’t hang together. Jenna Freemont survives “Lousy Monday” when she loses her job at a London magazine and returns home to find her lover with another woman. She regroups and winds up as assistant to Kitty, a distant cousin in Holtby. A widow, Kitty can’t afford to keep her late husband’s family estate, so she and Jenna must catalogue and sell its contents. Kitty’s godson, Alexander, and his fiancée, Caroline, take an instant dislike to Jenna, believing she is there to take advantage of Kitty. When Jenna plots a way for Kitty to afford to keep the house, she meets resistance on several fronts and even suffers an attempt on her life. Incorporating pop culture references and a clutter of irrelevant details, Harrod-Eagles (Game Over) also stretches the reader’s sense of a believable budding romance between Jenna and Alexander.

October 1, 2016

The northern English city of Leeds is not London, but crime happens everywhere. DI Septimus Ruddigore Black knows the new detective on the force is bent; Lenny Cope fled London when an investigation was launched into his connections to local crime lord Vincent Formosa. When two children are kidnapped, the gangster's fingerprints are all over the action. Dead bodies begin to pile up as Formosa, who always seems to be a step ahead of the police, cleans house. Black is forced to resign after a suspect dies in custody. How will he be able to clear his name, restore his reputation, bring down Formosa, and regain his badge? VERDICT McCoy (Perseverance Street; "Sam Carew" mysteries) launches a new crime series featuring a prototypical British police officer who holds his cards close to the vest and doesn't allow anyone to get too close. The well-constructed narrative unfolds in an entertaining manner. A solid choice for Peter Robinson and Reginald Hill fans.

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