Killing Time

This is an excellent story. I love Ms. Harrod-Eagles' characterizations, both of her key players as well as the secondary ones that appear in each novel. This particular book has some wonderful secondary charcters - Busty Parnell and Jay Paloma and Slider's new partner - (while Atherton is recovering in hospital) Hart are wonderful! We see more of Ms. Harrod-Eagles cracking wit in this book. Her puns in the chapter headings are still wonderful. In this book we see the murder of a homosexual dancer, and Slider sets out to find out who killed him and why. Slider enters the netherworld that all police officers are exposed to - notorious nightclubs, table-top dancers, drugs, etc. etc. in order to track down the killer. I love this series!

When exotic dancer Jay Paloma has been receiving poison pen letters for months so he tells London detective Inspector Bill Slider, but it is not until now that he decides to do something. He is getting worried he is going to leave town and settle back in Ireland - so he says. But he wants protection. Unfortunately he failed to keep any of the letters and Slider can't do anything. So when he is found murdered Slider feels some guilt and responsibility to track down his killer - but he has little to go on.Killing time is the 6th book in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles series of Shepherd's Bush Inspector Bill Slider. Slider's normal Side-kick is still in hospital recovering from a stab wound got in the course of the investigation of the previous murder Mystery - "Blood lines" so Slider is pared with a sassy young Black woman - detective Hart. There is also a clash of personalities in Slider's own Police station with a colleague not wishing to share information on another investigation which might cross with his own - and then there is one of Slider's own colleagues - PC Cosgrove in the thick of the investigation with everything pointing to his possible involvement in the crime.The mystery is very good - the personal side of things tends not to be - luckily there is very little delving into the personal life of Slider, his soon to be ex-wife Irene and his lover Joanna to distract from the real focus of this book - the solving of the murder. I do like the way Harrod-Eagles slowly reveals each level of clues so you follow with Slider the whole way to the solving of the crime. Harrod Eagles also has the tendency to be a bit smart with the puns - each chapter has a sort of pun title which I find alternatively mildly witty or not so witty. And the characters tend to pun with one another a lot. Perhaps I just don't appreciate that too much as funny and find it at times a bit distracting more than anything. I wish Harrod-Eagles would stick to her amazing mysteries.

I love this series because it is different. Funny, witty, streetwise. I'm always looking forward to the next instalment. The only disappointment for me was that some of the characters were a tad too quirky.

Read them, read them, read them. Police procedurals are a genre of their own. You either love them or you hate them. I fall on the side of those who love them. Cynthia Harrod-Eagle's are of course police procedurals set in England, so if you don't enjoy that setting, then don't go here. If you feel a closeness with stories set in England, then you'll enjoy these. I was a little disappointed with Slider being a dim bulb when it comes to women, but I guess that goes with the territory. His crew finds him very insightful and a great interviewer who sees many things that others miss, but he can't see what goes on under his own nose. I am waiting for him to tumble to the fact that Atherton loves JoAnna and I wonder what this will do the relationship amongst the three. I eagerly await the next in this series. Again - read it, read it, read it

When Jay Paloma, a gay man is murdered, Inspector Bill Slider is assigned to lead the investigation. With his partner Atherton still recovering from the injuries sustained on their last case, Bill is assigned to work with a female hot shot rookie, Tony Hart. Bill and Tony quickly learn that the victim's lover was an unknown prominent cabinet member. At first, the circumstantial evidence points towards Jonah Lafota, a giant body guard to a drug dealer. However, Jonah has an air tight alibi that has him elsewhere at the time of the murder. As Bill uncovers numerous facts about Jay's lifestyle including the identity of his lover, he finds himself still unable to name the killer nor the motive for the crime. However, though most of his clues leave him to a series of dead ends, Bill is getting closer to the culprit, who will do anything to permanently silence the police officer. KILLING TIME is an interesting British police procedural because of the charm oozed by Bill, who is a normal person with personal problems struggling to survive in a cruel world through humor and wit. The story line has the typical pacing of the British novel, but due to her victim's homosexual preferences, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has written a unique novel that gives readers a glimpse of an England rarely seen in this sub-genre. Harriet Klausner