Download Love Story, With Murders: A Novel

Love Story, With Murders: A Novel

Author: Visit Amazon's Harry Bingham Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0345533763 | Format: EPUB

Love Story, With Murders: A Novel Description

Review

“A most intriguing, if peculiar, detective . . . Although his volatile protagonist certainly dominates the first-person narrative, [Harry] Bingham doesn’t stint on plot (very complicated), procedures (very detailed) or action (very brutal). . . . Satisfying.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Love Story, with Murders is a dark delight, and I look forward to Fiona’s future struggles with criminals, her demons and the mysteries of her past.”—The Washington Post

“Bingham’s superb second police procedural featuring Det. Constable Fiona Griffiths delivers an even more intense plot and richer character study than his first. . . . Fiona’s past mental problems and her unconventional personality make her a distinctive lead.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Some of the most memorably staccato narration in the genre . . . [Bingham’s] remote, unquenchable heroine makes her stand apart from every one of her procedural brothers and sisters.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Compelling . . . [Love Story, with Murders] amply proves the freshness and flair that [Bingham] has brought to the police procedural. Written with unexpected warmth and wry observation, it brings its gruesome story to life without turning the stomach. . . . Surprisingly delicate, it weaves a sinuous, seductive spell and confirms we have a new crime talent to treasure.”—Daily Mail (UK)
 
“Love Story, with Murders boasts what must be the most startling protagonist in modern crime fiction. . . . Brutal, freakish and totally original.”—The Sunday Times (London)
 
“DC Fiona Griffiths . . . is ditsy, funny, stubborn and sharp. . . . Bingham provides a spirited Welsh response to the Scottish domination of British crime fiction.”—The Times (London)
 
“Bingham’s wit and deft descriptions enhance his plots and fascinating, unusual characters.”—Shelf Awareness

“They say there is nothing new under the sun. . . . I have to say that in a lifetime of reading crime fiction I have never come across anyone quite like Fiona Griffiths. . . . Read this book. Enjoy every syllable. Hold your breath, and tick off the weeks until the next one.”—Crime Fiction Lover

About the Author

Harry Bingham is an author and literary consultant who runs the U.K.’s largest literary consultancy firm, The Writers’ Workshop. He resides in Oxfordshire, where he is at work on the next novel in the Fiona Griffiths series.

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (February 18, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345533763
• ISBN-13: 978-0345533760
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Fiona Griffiths is back in this wonderful sequel to Talking to the Dead: A Novel. Our heroine, an inspector with the Cardiff Police Department in Wales, has Cotard's Syndrome, a rare disorder that makes sufferers feel like they are dead. Additionally, there are times when Fi can't feel her body parts and questions what her real emotions are. She enjoys smoking pot to mellow out her feelings and grows a superb strain of it in her hothouse. She prefers conferring with the dead more than with the living. Nonetheless, she is doing much better in this novel than in the last. She has a serious boyfriend, can cook a good meal for him, occasionally dresses well, and puts on eye make-up. She is trying to warm up to "The Ice Queen, Rhiannon Watkins, her stony superior. She and her boyfriend, Buzz, appear to be serious but still not ready to settle down permanently.

When part of a hacked up body is found in a domestic freezer in a suburb, the missing girl is identified as Mary Langton. The body part that Fi finds is a leg with a shoe still on it. It is the shoe that gives her the clues to discovering Mary's identity. Additionally, another dismembered body is found, that of Ali Khalifi, a lecturer in engineering at a local college. Fi is convinced that these two crimes are connected.

Fi has a fascinating background. At two years of age, she was left in a car that belonged to the man who adopted her. He tells her that he knows nothing more about her history. Fi is convinced that he is withholding information and begins researching her background. In order to do this, she has to find out as much about her father as she can.

( Series Note: If you didn't first meet Fiona in Harry Bingham's Talking To The Dead, you might want to do so before reading this sequel. Love Stories, With Murders does contain minor spoilers about Book #1's crime-line and Fiona's early childhood. Incidentally, Book #1 also reveals how Fi and Buzz came to be together and how he got his name. )

Love Stories, With Murders finds Welsh Detective Inspector Fiona Griffiths still smoking joints and warming up to cold dead bodies. Her Cotard's "Walking Corpse" Syndrome persists, making her confuse physical sensations for inner feelings. Or talking to ghosts for social interaction. But she's found new ways to appear "normal" - and absolutely nails the girlfriend role. However, she's less successful feigning appearances at the station, with unpredictably funny results. And she still cannot resist going rogue - with predictably dangerous consequences.

Five cases are on Fiona's current watch: four criminal and one to be determined. In one, she's gone rogue to pursue the fallout from the Rattigan case in the series debut Talking To The Dead. Next, she is the first to intuit a link between three other cases involving two dismembered bodies and one suspicious suicide. These investigations provide Fi with multiple opportunities to showcase her singular detecting skills and lethal martial arts techniques, along with her penchant for making spectacularly poor decisions and not being super human. (You should expect a dozen or more resultant F-bombs throughout the book ...)

But it's that fifth "case" that cuts closest to Fiona. She has very personal motives (revealed in the series debut) in investigating why her father is known as Wales' most successful criminal.

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