Death of a Hero - Hardcover

The eighth and, sadly, the last of the late British author's works featuring Ben Jurnet of the Angleby CID (A Beautiful Death, 1994, etc.). Ben still mourns the death of his beloved Miriam, finding comfort in his love-hate relationship with the Superintendent, his icy superior; in talks with Miriam's Rabbi Schnellman, who was guiding Ben's conversion to Judaism; and in his fond, occasionally sexual friendship with Pnina Benvista, Miriam's ill-formed young Israeli prot‚g‚e, madly in love with him. All this recedes to the background when a huge gathering of unemployed men- -thousands strong--encamps on Monkenheath Common, above the town, recalling a famed rebellion of centuries before. Charm-laden Charlie Applegate is spokesperson for the men, working hard to project an affable, nonthreatening presence, but within days he's found, strangled, on the doorstep of prostitute Jenny Nunn, in the town's sleazy Bergate district. Ben's investigation soon uncovers the tight bonding of Charlie, Jenny, Roger Adamson, and his fianc‚e Julian Grant, and the probability that Roger's wealthy Aunt Adeline, a college professor, had funded Charlie's protest march. New complexities arise with the death of Danny Saunders, who'd been separated from his teenage lover Pete Gilbert by Charlie's peremptory command. There are other deaths, all macabre, but little headway is made in the case--until the wedding of Roger and Julian precipitates a chilling solution. All the elements of the author's unique talent are at work here: offbeat characters probed to the bone; plotting that's bizarre but believable, and lyrical writing by turns introspective, pungent, or poetic. She will be missed. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A charming collection of oddballs and marvelously dysfunctional English populate this final work from a sadly under-appreciated author who passed away last year. Inspector Ben Jurnet is just getting over the death of his fiancee when 10,000 unemployed men stage a happening at a famous historical site. The leader of the event is the charismatic Charlie Appleyard, who proceeds to die at the house of Jenny Nunn, his onetime college friend with a first in history who now works as possibly the world's most enthusiastic prostitute. Ben finds several suspects in a kinky foursome, and one has hair that reminds him of his dearly departed love. Soon, he's swimming in his underwear and sleeping with a crippled girl in his flat above a deli. Haymon tends to pitch all manner of narrative and character oddity at the beguiled reader. Mostly it sticks, although in this instance a slew of deaths follows Charlie's with precious explanations thrown in at the end. As the new woman in Ben's life threatens to leave, the poor man can't decide whether to keep grieving over his first loss or to fight the possibility of any more. Haymon's previous works include the superior A Beautiful Death, in which Ben's fiancee expired, and Ritual Murder, which picked up the Silver Dagger Award in Britain.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.