Sat 3 Aug 2013
Reviewed by LJ Roberts: CYNTHIA HARROD-EAGLES – Blood Never Dies.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
CYNTHIA HARROD-EAGLES – Blood Never Dies. Severn House, hardcover, 2012.
Genre: Police procedural. Leading character: DI Bill Slider, 15th in series. Setting: England.
First Sentence: Exsanguination was the word Slider found wandering around his mind.
When is a suicide not a suicide? When it’s a murder. When the details are just slightly off. When is a murder particularly hard to solve? When you don’t know the identity of the victim. It’s even harder when you find a name but realize it’s false. For DI Bill Slider and his team, the more they dig, the more murders occur, and the more obscure becomes the motive behind it all.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has a wonderfully descriptive style. Her writing, and dialogue, is natural, sprinkled with wry humor, and occasional colloquialisms. She is very British, so occasionally some of her references of phrases might not be understood by Americans. It doesn’t matter; look them up and move on. It is well worth it and you learn something along the way.
Her writing can make you stop and consider … “Death was so mysterious, Slider thought, not for the first time. The difference between a human being and a dead body was so profound, it always amazed him that made the difference, the vital spark, could disappear so instantaneously and completely.†… “He looked at her. ‘Animals just follow instinct. It’s only humans who perform calculated acts of vileness.’â€
It is particularly appealing that, although Bill Slider is the protagonist, it is truly an ensemble case. Everyone has an important role to play. I also appreciate that Harrod-Eagles shows the harsh and plainly unfair reality of one’s career being limited by either not having the “right†look or manner:
“But scrawny frog-eyed Hollis, with his despairing hair and feather-duster moustache … made Peter Lorre look like a model from a knitwear catalogue. … He was a damn good policeman, which was all that counted to Slider — though not, of course, with the media-obsessed top bods in the Job, who would never promote Colin Hollis to any position that might get him on camera.â€
Slider is misfit in his own way. He doesn’t judge others but has a dogged determination to find the truth; he believes in fighting for right and justice. What I found missing was the some of the sparkle that makes this, for me, such a must-read series. There wasn’t as much interaction between Slider and his wife, Joanna, his father and Atherton, to which one always looks forward. Even the lovely and malapropism-plagued D.S. Porson: “A case of walking your chickens before they can run…†was little less apparent than in past stories.
It’s the excellent plotting that makes this such a compelling read. You feel the team’s frustration knowing the clues are leading somewhere, but having no idea where. You become part of the team, looking for the answers, rather than stand outside the story.
Blood Never Dies is a solid police procedural, with a strong plot and characters you want to visit again and again.
Rating: Good Plus.
August 3rd, 2013 at 5:49 pm
Another author I’ve always been meaning to try, and I never have.
August 4th, 2013 at 6:31 am
If I’m not mistaken, Harrod-Eagles is one of the longest serving authors of our days.
The Doc
August 4th, 2013 at 6:49 am
I like this series a lot. For whatever reason our library has stopped carrying the newer books in the Bill Slider series, so I’ve had to resort to buying them – first in England and lately from ABE. (They’ve been available in ex-lib editions at a very reasonable price.) You do need to read them in order from the beginning, Steve, if you do read them because of events that happen in his personal life along the way.
August 4th, 2013 at 9:34 am
Doc
I had to look it up, but the Bill Slider series didn’t start till 1991, which isn’t all that long ago.
Orchestrated Death (1991)
Death Watch (1992)
Necrochip (1993) aka Death to Go
Dead End (1994) aka Grave Music
Blood Lines (1996)
Killing Time (1996)
Shallow Grave (1998)
Blood Sinister (1999)
Gone Tomorrow (2001)
Dear Departed (2004)
Game Over (2008)
Fell Purpose (2009)
Body Line (2011)
Kill My Darling (2011)
Blood Never Dies (2012)
+
On the other hand, she may be even more well known as a writer of historical fiction. Her Morland Dynasty series got started in 1980. Says Wikipedia:
The original idea for the The Morland Dynasty series was a ‘history without tears’, fictional characters in a real historical background. The plan was for the whole run of British history from the Middle Ages to the Second World War to be covered in twelve volumes (Harrod-Eagles’ initial contract was for just four books). The series now comprises 34 titles; a 35th is being written (May 2012).
The Founding (1980) Begins 1434 and covers the War of the Roses and Richard III
The Dark Rose (1981) Begins 1501 and covers Henry VIII
The Princeling (1981) aka The Distant Wood Begins 1558 and covers Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots
The Oak Apple (1982) Begins 1630 and covers Charles I and the English Civil War
The Black Pearl (1982) Begins 1659 and covers Charles II and the Restoration
The Long Shadow (1983) Begins 1670 and covers Charles II and James II
The Chevalier (1984) Begins 1689 and covers William and Mary, Queen Anne, George I, the Old Pretender (1715 Rebellion)
The Maiden (1985) Begins 1720 and covers George I, George II, the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie), (1745 Rebellion)
The Flood-Tide (1986) Begins 1772 and covers George III, American War of Independence, Enclosures
The Tangled Thread (1987) Begins 1788 and covers The French Revolution, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
The Emperor (1988) Begins 1795 and covers the Rise of Napoleon
The Victory’ (1989) Begins 1803 and covers the Regency, Beau Brummell, Industrial Revolution, Battle of Trafalgar
The Regency (1990) Begins 1807 and covers the Napoleonic Wars, the Peninsular Campaign, the Industrial Revolution
The Campaigners (1990) Begins 1815 and covers the Campaign of 100 Days and the Battle of Waterloo
The Reckoning (1992) Begins 1816 and covers the Post War Slump, Chartism, Pentrich Revolution, Industrial Progress
The Devil’s Horse (1993) Begins 1820 George IV, the Factory Age, The Rainhill Trials, Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Poison Tree (1994) Begins 1831 and covers William IV, 1832 Reform Act, the Railway Pioneers
The Abyss (1995) Begins 1833 and covers William IV, Victoria, the Railway Age, George Hudson
The Hidden Shore (1996) Begins 1843 and Covers the Early Victorian Age, Philanthropy, Ragged School
The Winter Journey (1997) Begins 1851 and covers the Mid-Victorian Age, The Great Exhibition, the Crimean War
The Outcast (1998) Begins 1857 and covers the American Civil War, the Divorce Act, the first Underground Railway
The Mirage (1999) Begins 1870 and covers the High Victorian Age, Franco-Prussian War, changes to medical training
The Cause (2000) Begins 1874 and covers the High Victorian Age, Women’s Rights
The Homecoming (2001) Begins 1885 and covers Late Victorian Age, Oscar Wilde, Prince of Wales’ set, Girls Education
The Question (2002) Begins 1898 and covers Late Victorian/Edwardian, Automobile, Boer War, Suffragettes
The Dream Kingdom (2003) Begins 1980 and covers Edwardian, Aviation
The Restless Sea (2004) Begins 1912 and covers George V, Titanic, Cat and Mouse Act
The White Road (2005) Begins 1914 and covers the beginning of World War I
The Burning Roses (2006) Begins 1915 and continues World War I
The Measure of Days (2007) Begins 1916 and continues World War I covering the Battle of the Somme
The Foreign Field (2008) Begins 1917 and continues World War I, Passchendaele
The Fallen Kings (2009) Begins 1918 and covers the end of WW1; Armistice; demobilisation
The Dancing Years (2010) Begins 1919 and continues demobilisation and peace
The Winding Road (2011) Begins 1925 and covers the Jazz Age; Wall Street Crash
And her first novel, a standalone non-mystery, came out in 1972. So yes, absolutely, she’s been writing for a long, long time.
August 4th, 2013 at 9:38 am
Jeff
Thanks for the advice about reading the Slider books in order. Even without your suggesting it, at least I always try to read the first in a series first.
August 4th, 2013 at 12:26 pm
I’m delighted to see that more people will discover Bill Slider and the lovely Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Yes, I do have the entire Morland Dynasty series, as well.