Working Girl

by Graham Ison

Overview

A fast-moving, intricate and compelling contemporary mystery, starting with the brutal murder of a prostitute in London's West End, and uncovering a politician with feet of clay, a bent ex-policeman and a baggage handling scam at Heathrow airport.

Brock and Poole might seem mismatched in age and temperament, but their verbal sparring hides a genuine mutual respect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781471918650
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	10/14/2015
Series:	Brock and Poole , #841
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	669 KB

About the Author

Graham Ison served in the British Army before joining the Metropolitan Police. During his thirty-year career in Scotland Yard's Special Branch, he was involved in several famous espionage cases and spent four years at 10 Downing Street as protection officer to the prime minister. He later guarded US Presidents, crowned heads and other heads of state during state visits to this country. Since leaving the police, he focused his talents on crime fiction, and has written over forty books including the Brock & Poole detective stories and the Hardcastle historical mysteries. He passed away in 2020.

Editorial Reviews

This fair-to-middling police procedural from British ex-police officer Ison (Underneath the Arches, etc.) introduces world-weary and acerbic DCI Harry Brock, who likes to correct the English of Det. Sgt. Dave Poole, his long-suffering, working-class West Indian subordinate, who mutters insubordinately under his breath. The sordid murder of a London prostitute, Monica Purvis, inevitably involves a government official who must be dealt with tactfully. He is, of course, a sleaze. And there's a roster of lowlifes who are up to all kinds of nasty things. Incidentally, Monica was a convent girl as well as a nymphomaniac who kept a whip and handcuffs for special customers. DCI Brock tsks-tsks throughout"one knows that at the back of his disapproving mind is the thought that his mother would never do that in a million years. Brock and Poole generate little chemistry between them, nor is the case they investigate especially gripping. A few more corpses turn up but fail to add to the suspense. The policemen's inquiries lead them in circles, and eventually they arrest a suspect even they're unsure is guilty of the first victim's murder. Some American readers may find more annoying than not the unfamiliar British terms and slang ( The inspector stood up and tugged at his woolly-pully ; I should coco ). Nonetheless, Anglophilic crime fans will appreciate the novel's air of authenticity. (May) FYI: The author spent 30 years as an officer in Scotland Yard's Special Branch and four years at 10 Downing St. as Protection Officer to prime ministers Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. SF/Fantasy/Horror Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Detective Chief Inspector Harry Brock narrates this British procedural with a certain flair for irony, critical humor, and the occasional wry, side-stepping commentary. With scruffy partner Dave Poole, he investigates the murder of a prostitute who specialized in bondage. They do the usual procedural things: reconstruct her last day, check out her place of "work" and her home, track down an elusive husband and a few former lovers, and match fingerprints with furtive suspects. Persistence, luck, and good banter attend the pair as they close the case. This debut series by a former officer in Scotland Yard's Special Branch is recommended for all collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

After 27 years on London's Metropolitan Police, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Brock has seen it all, though not often as graphically as in the bloody crime scene featuring working girl Monica Purvis. Still, brutal though the slaying is, the case at first appears bleakly routine. Quicker than you can say "big fish," though, appearances turn out to be deceiving. The very next day, Harry's summoned to the office of Commissioner Sir Charles Austen, the Met's top cop, to be issued a warning. Sir Charles, it seems, had received his own warning from the eminent Geoffrey Halstead, MP and cabinet minister, expressing concern about the direction a certain investigation might take. Halstead feared he might come to be regarded as a suspect in the Purvis case. That would be a mistake, he urged Sir Charles, who in turn wants Harry to come to precisely the same conclusion. True enough, Halstead had been a sometime client of the Purvis woman's, but could he have trespassed further? Unthinkable. Unthinkable, Sir Charles had agreed, seizing the point. Two days later, however, Harry, nothing daunted, is producing his warrant card and issuing a caution to an enraged cabinet minister. Will evidence leading elsewhere make Harry regret his temerity, or will the honorable Halstead be resigning his seat early? Meat and potatoes for the police-procedural buff.

Kirkus Reviews