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Peter Turnbull

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Deep Cover (A Harry Vicary Mystery, 2) Hardcover – October 1, 2011

by Peter Turnbull (Author)

3.6 20 ratings

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A Harry Vicary Mystery: the second novel in a brand-new crime series set in London from the author of the Hennessey and Yellich mysteries.

When the snow thaws on London's Hampstead Heath after a harsh winter, a ghoulish discovery is made that marks the start of a very dangerous case for Detective Inspector Harry Vicary and his team. A body of a man is found on top of a shallow grave containing the battered remains of a young woman. He appears to have frozen to death, but what is his connection to the remains below? Vicary's investigation leads him deep into London's criminal underworld.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Severn House
Publication date

October 1, 2011
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0727880659
ISBN-13

978-0727880659
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The fully realized detective characters, who show intense loyalty to the job, keen and energetic minds, and an unusually strong moral code" ― Publishers Weekly

"A well-written, cleverly crafted police procedural that starts off slowly and builds to a tense finish" ― Booklist

"Whether it's the London locale or a closer eye on the gritty details, Turnbull's Vicary series is edgier than his Hennessey and Yellich entries" ― Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Peter Turnbull was born and raised in Yorkshire, England. He has had a variety of jobs--in a former incarnation he was a social worker for twenty-three years, an occupation he gave up to become a full-time writer. ""Fear of Drowning"" is his twelfth novel.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Severn House (October 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0727880659
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0727880659
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches

Customer Reviews:
3.6 20 ratings

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3.6 out of 5

20 global ratings

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Desert Rat

Interesting yarn, but...

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2012

...by the middle of the book it became pretty obvious how it was going to end.

Nevertheless, there were some interesting characters, both among the police and the villains. The bad guys were indeed scary and the plot was pretty complex.

A warning: the book is chock full of British slang, much of which is unintelligible to anybody from another country.

All-in-all it was enjoyable, but not a book I would recommend to a friend.

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Lou Ann Wallace

Great Police Procedural!

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2018

This story intertwined several stories with villains and nasties all around. The dialogue is interesting and factual. The characters well developed and the plot is laid out fully.

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David R. Eastwood

INTERESTING IN PARTS BUT FAR, FAR TOO RUSHED AND LACKING ANY DETAILS AT ITS ENDING—WHERE DETAILS REALLY MATTER

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2017

DEEP COVER (2011) by Peter Turnbull is the second mystery novel in his "Harry Vicary Series"; Turnbull is also the author of "The Hennessy and Yellich Series," which is set in Yorkshire and currently is much longer (at least 18 volumes that I know of). Detective Inspector Harry Vicary of Scotland Yard is the central figure of this book's rather large cast of characters, and this book's central problem is HOW to get evidence against the powerful, sadistic duo of villains (a male and a female), who have been selling drugs, trafficking in sex-slaves, and murdering scores of people.

The story is told through an omniscient narrator in dozens of relatively short scenes that shift back and forth between the forces for Law and the forces for Lawlessness. The opening scenes of the discovery of three bodies are among the best; the early "procedural" scenes, including postmortems, are interesting. Later scenes often are less gripping, and the investigation seems to have little direction until—near the end—a young woman on Vicary's team volunteers to go undercover to try to get the vitally needed evidence.

The characterization of Vicary himself is far less circumstantial and interesting than that of many of the subordinate characters. We learn that he and his wife are technically alcoholics and that for a while (prior to this book) his career had been in jeopardy, but his alcoholism has no connection whatsoever with this current case. As for the two main villains, one of them has been living in a ritzy neighborhood under an assumed name, while the other (a woman) appears to be working for him—yet once the male villain's real name is discovered by the police (with some implausible difficulty), it appears that dozens of gang members and subordinate gofers have been calling their boss only by his real name all along, AND the woman who seemed to work for him is (SPOILER ALERT) the true leader of the gang—and we as readers are NEVER INFORMED (1) why the false name was ever bothered with and (2) when and how the evil woman and evil man got together and set up their gang with her primarily in charge. (Omniscient narrators are supposed to know such stuff ... though often authors have no clue.)

The ending to this case is relatively easy to foresee, both in general terms (SPOILER ALERT: the good folks win) and in specific details (smart readers need to PAY ATTENTION to what the good folks have been saying to the bad ones). Sadly, THE OUTCOME IS NOT PRESENTED IN A MANNER THAT IS SATISFYING FOR THE READER: the wind-up of this novel is far too short and lacking in details. (Earlier passages have often provided us with hundreds of totally irrelevant bits of information—about British geography, British architecture, British buildings' odors/odours, and British regional dialects, among other things.) The page and a half that close this book simply give us (in 50 words or less) a bare-bones list of the court sentences given to a few of the villains. We do NOT have any scenes, short or long, where the top villains are arrested and make statements or otherwise react to their fates. We do NOT get any scenes, short or long, where the villains are on trial and react to that procedure and/or the outcome. In short, we readers get NO satisfying indications that ANY of the sadistic scum, who've made thousands of people's lives pure hell, ARE in fact at last suffering themselves in ANY specific and vividly described ways.

Weighing this book's strengths and shortcomings, in my judgment it deserves a "C+" grade (3 stars out of 5).

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Kindle Customer

wonderful winding romp

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2014

This book kept me enthralled while I neglected things that needed doing. Very worth the detour and quite well written

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