In Vino Veritas

by Peter Turnbull

Overview

A tip-off leading to the discovery of a young woman’s body throws Harry Vicary and his team into another perplexing murder investigation.

‘Big Andy’ Cragg’s drunken disclosure to an undercover police officer in a West London pub that he was once party to the disposal of the body of a murder victim sets a sinister and disturbing chain of events in motion for Harry Vicary and his team. A body is found exactly where Cragg said it would be, and the consequent investigation plunges Vicary into a labyrinth world of contract killings, witness intimidation and large-scale money laundering. Can he piece together the clues to uncover why a young woman was so brutally murdered?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727885722
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Series:	A Harry Vicary Mystery , #5
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Peter Turnbull is the author of the acclaimed Hennessey and Yellich novels and the new Harry Vicary series. He lives in Yorkshire, England.

Editorial Reviews

01/04/2016
British author Turnbull’s engrossing fifth police procedural featuring Det. Chief Insp. Harry Vicary (after 2014’s Denial of Murder) opens quietly enough when Andrew “Big Andy” Cragg, a minor gang member—really a gofer or errand boy—drops into a London pub. Over a pint, Cragg drunkenly confides to a stranger that he once helped dispose of a murder victim in a neighborhood south of the Thames. The stranger turns out to be an undercover Scotland Yard detective, who seizes Cragg’s beer glass as evidence as soon as he walks out of the pub. A young woman’s body is indeed found in the spot Cragg designated, sending Vicary and his team to their missing person files. One thing slowly leads to another, and eventually the squad painstakingly analyzes 10-year-old clues. Turnbull unobtrusively slips details of the officers’ private lives into the action. A lot of people do a daunting amount of work on the way to the satisfying conclusion. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

An inventive plot, smart writing, unexpected twists, and a satisfying ending make this a satisfying read for fans of hardboiled fiction

Booklist

An inventive plot, smart writing, unexpected twists, and a satisfying ending make this a satisfying read for fans of hardboiled fiction

Booklist

2015-12-23
A tipsy conversation leads DI Harry Vicary's team (Denial of Murder, 2015, etc.) to reopen a cold case. Working undercover, DC Tom Ainsclough doesn't look like Old Bill. So you could hardly blame Big Andy Cragg for cornering him in a local boozer and unloading a tale of carrying a body years ago out to Malpas Road, New Cross, to be buried in a shallow grave. But when Ainsclough carries the news back to the nick, Vicary decides to follow up on Cragg's story. Next thing you know, DS Victor Swannell has six uniformed constables and a black and white springer spaniel out on Malpas Road looking for remains. They find them soon enough in an allotment run by Tony Vere, on a parcel Vere's records show was farmed by "a geezer called Hill" who never seemed to grow anything and gave it up after a few months. Meantime, Cragg admits being offered the job of corpse disposal by "a geezer called ‘Chinese Geordie Davy.' " Ainsclough and Penny Yewdall are able to identify the body as that of Victoria Keynes, who disappeared years before after walking out on her husband, Elliot Woodhuyse. Woodhuyse turns out to be a dark horse, with plenty of disposable income with no clear source. But connecting Woodhuyse to Hill and Davy, and Victoria's skeletal remains to any of the aforementioned geezers, takes patience, persistence, and lots of shoe leather. Turnbull's fast-paced procedural should appeal to fans of the dogged-determination puzzler.

Kirkus Reviews

Narrator Gordon Griffin is the best aspect of this overly long and overly graphic mystery. In a pub, a drunken Andy Cragg tells an undercover officer about a ten-year-old murder. The tip-off sets in motion an investigation by Harry Vicary and his Murder and Serious Crime Squad. The detailed police procedural includes kidnapping, money laundering, and murder. Griffin deftly conveys ruthless people in the underworld, the petty criminals who do their bidding, and the innocent people tragically affected. It’s disturbing to hear how criminals’ tracks are covered and bodies casually disposed of. Listeners will eagerly follow Vicary’s investigation—but may be disappointed by the abrupt conclusion. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile