Fri 12 Dec 2014
Archived Review: JANICE LAW – Death Under Par.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
JANICE LAW – Death Under Par. Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 1981. iUniverse, softcover, 2000.
With the obvious exception of horse-racing, I think more mysteries have had to do with golf than with any other sport. Unless you can come up with another physical pastime I’m not thinking of, golf is the clear runner-up, which is what leads us to the latest Anna Peters thriller.
She and long-time boy friend Harry have finally tied the knot, and for their honeymoon they travel to Scotland, for a working vacation during the British Open — he’s an artist on assignment for Sports Illustrated. There have been vandals at work, however, and threats have been made against one of the golfers. In case you haven’t been following Miss Peters’ adventures, she runs her own security business, and it quickly becomes a working honeymoon for her as well.
She finds a common thread between the golfer and two of her leading suspects: they all attended the same small college in Hartford (Trinity College, recognizably incognito). As a result, there is a good deal of local Connecticut scenery involved as well, including a quickie tour through the offices of the same newspaper [the Hartford Courant] that prints most of my reviews.
Which, of course, interested me much more than it will most of you. This is a straightforward crime story, making it more realistic than the puzzle artifices of a pure whodunit, perhaps, but in all truth, this case of Anna Peters presents no other challenge than that of sheer endurance.
A twist was needed. This one comes straight.
Rating: C.
The Anna Peters series —
1. The Big Payoff (1975)
2. Gemini Trip (1977)
3. Under Orion (1978)
4. The Shadow of the Palms (1979)
5. Death Under Par (1981)
6. Time Lapse (1992)
7. A Safe Place to Die (1993)
8. Backfire (1994)
9. Cross-Check (1997)
December 12th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
I found a cover image for only the much more recent softcover edition, which I decided wasn’t particularly appropriate. So, no extra frills on this old review this time. Sorry!
The series lasted longer than I remember, so good for the author, Janice Law. I know I’ve read the first two or three, besides this one, but after that, the titles don’t ring any bells. I must have missed them.
I mentioned the Hartford Courant in this review, but I don’t think this one appeared there. Back in those days I couldn’t afford to buy hardcovers, so the only place where I might have gotten my hands on this one was from the Courant’s shelf of incoming mysteries, which I came in to visit every couple of weeks or so. But if I submitted this review there, and I might not have, the new book page editor that came in around this time must never have used it.
December 12th, 2014 at 4:31 pm
I think I read one of the series but I’m not sure I remember it that well.
Golf mysteries are ubiquitous, Herbert Adams wrote enough of them to see to that all by himself. There are even a few spy novels where golf figures prominently.
To be fair murderous is usually how I felt playing.
December 12th, 2014 at 6:01 pm
That eleven-year gap between books 5 and 6 is when I lost track of Anna Peters. I’ll have to see if I can’t track down some of them. Unfortunately she’s not all that memorable a character. Obviously I read this one, but all I remember about her is her name.
I don’t even remember what golf had to do with it, other than what I recorded in this old time capsule of a review.