Summary and Reviews of Unlucky For Some by Jill McGown

Unlucky For Some by Jill McGown

Unlucky For Some

by Jill McGown
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 1, 2005, 358 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2006, 352 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

McGown's storytelling genius will captivate longtime fans as well as first-time readers. Unlucky for Some is lucky for all admirers of virtuoso suspense writing.

Selected by The Times (London) as one of the twentieth century's "100 Masters of Crime," Jill McGown writes mystery-suspense novels with plots that defy second-guessing. In Unlucky for Some, her thirteenth book featuring Detective Chief Inspectors Lloyd and Hill, the quiet life of an English town scarcely conceals the deadly menace lurking around dark corners and within the human mind.

Michael Waterman is a self-made millionaire. His casinos and nightclubs ensure a constant flow of cash, and Waterman knows what he needs to do to keep it that way. So far, it seems, he has stayed on the right side of the law. Certainly, no one seriously suspects him of murdering bingo player Wilma Fenton, who was struck down while walking home with a purse crammed full of winnings. Her murder looks like an ordinary mugging except for one oddity: The killer had left Wilma's money neatly fanned out across her body.

The motive behind the bafflingly violent act dogs Lloyd and Hill– now married and the harried parents of a two-year-old daughter. The stakes are raised with a second murder, modeled on the first . . . and then a third. A cold-blooded killer is challenging not only the police but the one witness to the first slaying: England's premier expert on serial crime, well-known journalist and TV personality, Tony Baker. It has now become a twisted game of madness and logic–in which failure to outwit the murderer means more senseless deaths.

In this astonishing Lloyd and Hill novel, Jill McGown's storytelling genius will captivate longtime fans as well as first-time readers. Unlucky for Some is lucky for all admirers of virtuoso suspense writing.

Chapter One

In the cold, gray light of a mid-February afternoon, Michael Waterman watched Detective Chief Superintendent Raymond Yardley's putt roll gently over the manicured green heading toward the thirteenth hole, and walked over, hand outstretched, conceding the putt before the ball had stopped moving. "Too good," he said, taking out his wallet, and extracting five twenties. "I believe we said a hundred?"

"We did." Ray grinned, sliding the notes into his back pocket. "Which means a lot more to me than it does to you."

Michael picked up both balls and put his redundant putter back in the bag, hoisting it to his shoulder as the two men walked together toward the clubhouse. He'd lost at the thirteenth hole on the thirteenth of the month—maybe there was something in the superstition after all.

But Ray's burly figure dwarfed the slight, wiry Michael, and that was much more likely to be where Michael's problems lay. Admittedly, Michael was ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
The wide-ranging intelligence and exhaustive detail are stellar examples of what other police procedurals want to be when they grow up.

Library Journal - Deborah Shippy
McGown is in top form here. Her characters are engaging and the solution isn't easy. Highly recommended for collections where British procedurals are popular.

Publishers Weekly
McGown's series can legitimately be compared to Peter Lovesey's outstanding Peter Diamond novels, blending police procedural and twisty whodunit tropes with sardonic humor and byplay between members of the police force.

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