Death Penalties

September 2, 1991
British award-winner Gosling adds another taut tale to her series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Luke Abbott, now in London. After Roger Leland, dies in a car crash, his American interior-designer wife, Tess, is beset by further troubles. Her home is burglarized; she receives unnerving silent phone calls. When her son Max comes down with rheumatic fever, she hires a widowed Cambridge scholar to tutor the boy in exchange for housing. Max's co-guardian opposes the plan even though Tess, whose phone caller has begun to demand money, expects to feel safer with a man in the house. Concurrently Detective Sergeant Tim Nightingale learns from the diary of a recently deceased retired politician that Roger's car was run off the road by a man who after the crash tried to pry open the trunk. Tim must convince Luke that the string of events are not merely coincidences. With stylish turns of phrase and special insights, Gosling tells an exciting tale that builds to a breathtaking finale in the London tube. Mystery Guild alternate.