A Flavour of the Book: “She landed on her back, too shocked to react for the moment she stared at him her terrified eyes locked on his. In a desperate bid for freedom she tried to scramble to her feet, with a snarl he pulled back his fist and punched her mouth hard, splitting her lips wide open and smashing both her front teeth. Retching, she spat bits of teeth and blood into the gutter. He grinned, she didn’t look so pretty now…”
The Authortrek View: This is a fairly run-of-the-mill police procedural. Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt and DS Luke Daniels have gone to Ireland to pick up Luke’s errant daughter Selina, who’s run off, and been put in a cell by the Garda for being drunk and disorderly. Since Luke is so het up about his relationship with his daughter, Lorraine suggests that they cool their relationship for a while, but is taken aback by just how coolly Luke takes this. Meanwhile, a handsome Garda officer vies for her affections. Back in Houghton-le-Spring, work is made a little more complicated by the presence of a journalist, who can’t help prying into the investigation when a series of murders occurs… To make matters worse, it appears that Selina has become the killer’s latest target, and that he has an apprentice… As the case proceeds, Lorraine can’t be sure who to trust, since the killer appears to have access to the police computer… Every Breath You Take is a quite enjoyable novel, although it’s not the most convincing whodunit that I’ve read recently. I correctly guessed the identity of the murderer early on, although I still had no idea as to the motive, which was very convincingly brought out in the end by Sheila Quigley. I also wasn’t too convinced by the various interludes in the novel that featured the anonymous killer’s thoughts, as they were too short, of necessity, to give much of an insight into his world. I also wasn’t too sure about all the Irish links, as I don’t associate Sunderland that much with Irish immigration (apart from at Sunderland FC), but I’m sure Sheila Quigley knows much more about that than I do. Dedicated readers of Sheila Quigley’s work will no doubt be pleased about the reappearance of the Lumsdons, although they must be the unluckiest family in Houghton-le-Spring due to the fact that they are always being mixed up in very serious crime. Then again, the Lumsdons don’t exactly live in the most salubrious of areas. I think Every Breath You Take would have worked much better as a TV script, as much of the narrative is televisual, such as the killer’s stalking of his victims (at one point, two women are being followed, and you’re not sure which one is going to be the next victim). Sheila Quigley famously started out by writing scripts, until she was advised by her agent to switch to novels instead, but I think that the advice should have been reversed with regard to this novel. Okay, so the killings in Every Breath You Take are far more graphic than those in Midsommer Murders, but I’m sure that an adaptation would attract the same calibre of star actors, as there are a number of high profile red herrings, and the narrative is just the right length to work on TV. So to conclude, Every Breath You Take is a good story, but it’s one that’s been told in the wrong medium.
You can read a resume of the book on our Amazon store below. To find out more about the editor, please visit our Sheila Quigley page.
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