THE SECOND JEOPARDY

by Roger Ormerod ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 1988

Ex-con Harry Hudnutt and Virginia Brent, aristocratic daughter of an Assistant Chief Constable, form an unlikely team--one brought together by Detective Sergeant Tranter, at Virginia's insistence, to try to find the killer of Angela Reed, a murder still unsolved after four years. Harry had left Angela at a road stop after commandeering her car in the wake of the jewel robbery that had gotten him a four-year sentence, just completed. Someone had killed her after his departure, and Vic Fletcher, her live-in boyfriend at the time, is now hounding Harry and threatening revenge, despite the facts that cleared Harry then. Meanwhile, Virginia's motive in all this remains a mystery until the end, but her energy and persistence are formidable--unearthing a connection to a bank robbery after which Harry's friend Charlie Braine disappeared, along with the bank loot. There are also connections to kingpin gangster Sean O'Loughlin, to Charlie's wife Cynthia, and to her would-be lover, policewoman Freda Graham. Subplots galore, in the author's standard Byzantine style (Dead Ringer, etc.), along with parched, enigmatic dialogue. But there are some tense moments as well, an engaging character in Harry, and less tedium and confusion than in recent work. Moderately diverting.

Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION