Lloyd and Hill 4

Contains a spoiler for book 3

In book 3 of this series, "Death of a Dancer", police persons D. Lloyd and Judy Hill finally become a couple and move in together. In "The Murders of Mrs Austin and Mrs Beale", Judy has been transferred to another unit because now they are not allowed to be team partners anymore. Nevertheless, they need to work on their next case together because a double murder has taken place. One of Judy's friends, the wife of an aspiring politician, is killed in her home while telephoning another woman, the wife of a dodgy businessman. This woman is found dead shortly after, too.
Unfortunately, this case did not interest me at all. Apart from Lloyd and Hill and another policeman, there is not one single character in this novel that I found interesting or worth reading about, the investigation is meandering and incredibly slow, and it feels jumbled and repetitive. Even Lloyd and Hill got on my nerves after some time because instead of working on their relationship and enjoying that they are finally together, they quarrel about irrelevant things and appear childish and petty.
I was surprised by the final twists and did not see them coming at all, so this merits the second star, but apart from that it is hard to describe anything that I liked about this novel. It is a pity, because I really enjoyed the first two novels of this series. I have book 5 on my shelf and will read it because I already own it, but if it is like this one, I will abandon the series. However, I do hope that it will be better because initially I liked Lloyd and Hill so much and, if written reasonably well, I would love to see where their work and their relationship takes them. ( )

This was the first in the Lloyd and Hill series by Jill McGown. Two women are murdered nearly simultaneously. Did the same person kill both? ( )

Well, I must say that when the "who" in the "whodunit" presented itself I was thrown for a loop! Bravo! It is extremely rare that I'm surprised any more at the resolution of a mystery novel, but this one got me. It was an "aha" moment if ever there was one! Obviously, this makes for good solid mystery reading and I can only hope the other books by this author are as good (because I have more on the shelf!). Highly recommended. This is book 4 in the series, and unlike my normal pattern, I have not yet read the books which precede it. So I don't know if I can say you should read them in order or no, but this one was quite good.

basic plot
The police are called out to investigate a missing woman and end up investigating her murder. While they were working the crime scene, one of the officers is asked to make a call. I guess this was before the days of cell phones, because he goes to use the dead woman's telephone. He finds that there is no dial tone so the BT is contacted. It turns out that the victim was on the line to another woman at the time. Officers are sent there only to find that woman murdered as well. Detective Inspector Lloyd is put in charge of the original murder; his girlfriend, DI Judy Hill, is put in charge of the other. With a finite list of suspects, certainly they should be able to figure out what's going on, but everyone seems to have an alibi.

Very well written, and an awesome plot twist! Anyone who likes a well-written, well-constructed and well-plotted mystery will like this one; it is also a good British mystery fan read. ( )