The Water Clock - Hardcover

Kelly, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312321430 ISBN 13: 9780312321437

Verlag: Minotaur Books, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

In the bleak, snowbound landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fens, a man's mutilated body is discovered in a block of ice. High up on Ely Cathedral a second body is discovered, grotesquely riding an ancient stone gargoyle. The decaying corpse, it seems, has been there for more than thirty years.

Philip Dryden, lead reporter for the local newspaper The Crow, knows he's onto a great story when forensic evidence links both victims to one terrifying crime in 1966. But the story also offers Dryden the key to a very personal mystery. Who saved his life after a car crash one foggy night two years ago---and who left his wife, Laura, in a ditch to die? As he continues his painful visits to Laura, who has been locked in a coma ever since the accident, Dryden's search for the truth takes on ever increasing urgency. The answers will bring him face to face with his own guilt, his own fears---and a cold and ruthless killer.

This brilliant and evocative murder mystery, which was shortlisted for Britain's John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel of the year, marks Jim Kelly as the new master of suspense.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jim Kelly is the education correspondent for The Financial Times in London. He lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with his wife, biographer Midge Gillies, and their daughter Rosa.

Rezensionen

Philip Dryden worked for a Fleet Street newspaper until he and his wife were involved in a terrible car crash. Philip survived unscathed, but his wife has been in a coma for five years. To be near the sanatorium where she lies, Philip takes a job near Cambridge, reporting mainly on dog shows and country fairs. But when a car containing a man's body is pulled from the nearby river, Philip's investigative instincts revive. And when a second body--this one dead for years--is discovered on top of the local cathedral, his interest is definitely piqued. Philip soon uncovers a link not only between the two deaths but also to a crime that took place 30 years earlier. Discovering the identity of the man who killed both victims becomes Philip's mission. The book starts slowly but quickly picks up momentum and then runs hell for leather to the final climax. Strong characters, a riveting plot, plenty of humor, and an eccentric hero add up to a fine debut from the talented Mr. Kelly. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

British author Kelly's strong debut introduces Philip Dryden, a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Cambridgeshire, England. Reporters are always in the thick of things when crimes happen in a small town, but Dryden is more involved than normal because he has made a deal with the devil. To help a policeman in trouble, he writes a not-quite-true news story, in exchange for the official report of the auto accident two years earlier that nearly killed Dryden and left his wife in a coma. Obsessed with finding out who rescued him but not his wife and then disappeared, he goes to dangerous lengths for answers. A masterful stylist, Kelly crafts sharp, crisp sentences so pure, so true, they qualify as modern poetry. The cold, bleak landscape of the fens seems to seep through the paper and chill the fingers turning the pages. Less impressively, the police report on the accident, when Dryden finally gets his hands on it, is anticlimactic, and he seems largely unaffected by what he learns. And the story concludes with one of those improbable "you might as well tell me everything before you shoot me" conversations between protagonist and killer, a mild disappointment from a writer of Kelly's skill. On balance, however, this is a solid mystery from a promising new talent.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Minotaur Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312321430
• ISBN 13: 9780312321437
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar