The Ice House by Minette Walters
Winner of the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger Award It's been ten years since Phoebe Marbury's husband disappeared from their country manor, Streech Grange, when one afternoon her gardener discovers a decomposed body in the ice house. Now in her mid-thirties, Phoebe shares the manor with two unmarried friends, and the rumors in the village suggest they're up to something--witchcraft, lesbianism, child abuse. Chief Inspector Walsh is eager to find out for himself when he's called to investigate the body. What he discovers is a faceless, contorted corpse and three women who have no interest in helping out the police, and clearly know something they're not telling him. Minette Walters's first novel gives a raw, contemporary spin to a classic mystery convention, and the result is splendid . . . an extraordinary debut (St. Petersburg Times). Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Walter's zinger of a debut deftly dissects the lives of three reclusive English women who become the subject of censure and speculation during a murder investigation. After a rotting corpse is found in the ice house of Streech Grange, Chief Inspector Walsh sets out at once to prove it is the body of David Maybury, whom wife Phoebe was suspected of murdering when he was reported missing years earlier. Since no body was ever found, Walsh deduces that Maybury returned and was killed by Phoebe or one of her friends, Anne and Diane, who live with her at the Grange. Detective Sgt. Alan McLoughlin, however, isn't so sure, especially after the coroner says the dead man was older than David and the local belief that the three women are a lesbian menage a trois turns out to be untrue. But McLoughlin can't understand why the Grange's residents make the investigation so difficult by refusing to answer questions and sometimes openly lying. Walters skillfully brings together the relationships between the women and the policemen into a complicated but believable puzzle, which she solves with panache. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. Now a naked, unidentifiable corpse has been discovered in the icehouse on the Grange, and Inspectors Walsh and McLoughlin have to decide whose it is, whether he was murdered, and who killed him. The cozy British setup is countered by an unremitting ferocity of tone, as Walsh--who planted the story years ago that Phoebe killed her husband--and McLoughlin slug it out with Phoebe and her aggressively lesbian companions, interior designer Diana Goode and magazine writer Anne Cattrell. For good measure, McLoughlin, stung by Anne's accurate taunts that he's fallen for her, also tangles with unblushing liar Maisie Thompson, whose husband has done a bunk (could that corpse be his?); with his long-unfaithful wife; with the village queer- bashers; and finally with Walsh himself. Unholy passions seethe inches beneath a proper surface: a brutal, literate debut--especially welcome to fans of Ruth Rendell.(I) -- Copyright ®1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review Unholy passions seethe inches beneath a proper surface: a brutal, literate debut.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Splendid . . . an extraordinary debut.--St. Petersburg Times A stylish, nontraditional mystery in which ambiguity abounds.--The New York Times Book Review Electrifying.--Rocky Mountain News [A] zinger of a debut . . . Walters skillfully brings together the relationships between the women and the policemen into a complicated but believable puzzle, which she solves with panache.--Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Minette Walters is the author of fourteen suspense novels and the winner of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger Award, among others. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. She lives with her husband in Dorset, England. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Publication Details
Title:
Author(s):
Illustrator:
Binding: Paperback
Published by: Pan Macmillan: , 1997
Edition:
ISBN: 9780330353342 | 0330353349
430 pages.
Book Condition: Good
Cover worn.
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