Always a skilled mistress of the classic British crime novel, award-winning author Dorothy Simpson is at the top of her form in this powerful novel of family love gone tragically wrong.

Average Rating:


Review: 2008-07-25

A Well Told Story
A Well Told Story

Dead and Gone, by Dorothy Simpson, was an interesting story that I thought the author handled well with all the interviews of witnesses and possible suspects that were made by Inspector Thanet and his partner. It was well plotted with enough suspense to keep me reading. The story could have used a bit more conflict to keep interest high, but the Inspector's personality was staid and dry and set the mood. The ending was rather a shocker and was really the height of the story. Overall, Simpson is a terrific story teller and I enjoyed reading her book.


Review: 2005-12-24

The final Inspector Thanet novel.
"Dead and Gone" is the final novel in Dorothy Simpson's 'Inspector Thanet' series: apparently the onset of RSI forced the writer to abandon writing in 2000.

Unlike many of his fictional contemporaries, Thanet is a family man - and while he suffers secondary problems with his wife and children, these are kept as background matters in the books and his family is basically a well-adjusted and happy one.

The books are set in Kent, England (the author herself residing for a long time in Maidstone, the county town), and take the form of gentle police procedurals (no Val McDermid-style angst and graphic violence here).

This final story begins when the wife of a local Q.C (high-ranking lawyer) disappears following an informal dinner party at which their daughter has announced her engagement to an unsuitable fiance. The development of the plot is quite compelling, and athough the final twist was rather telegraphed, it is a good read for a winter's afternoon, a long journey or a beach holiday.

(And yes, to that other reviewer - I have read the novel!)


Review: 2005-11-22

well plotted, well written
it's amazing that dorothy simpson isn't better known. she writes extrememly well, her detectives are attractive personalities, her plots are wonderfully twisty, and she leaves clues for any reader who wants to guess.

this entry in the series moves along nicely--not a lot of digressions, sufficient psychology to be getting along with, and, some healthy red herrings, and, at the end, the title takes on a different meaning.


Review: 2005-03-22

Virginia's In the Well.
Those who have read hundreds of crime novels will surely never have been asked to guess who killed the woman found dead at the bottom of a well in the courtyard of the house where she had arranged a swimming pool party the night before. Such is the task for the reader, shadowing Inspector Thanet, in this highly enjoyable 1999 addition to Dorothy Simpson's publications.

The enjoyment derives mainly from Dorothy Simpson's mastery of story telling. Other writers might provide deeper psychological analyses or incorporate more detailed forensic pathology along the way, but Dorothy Simpson keeps her story moving. There is sometimes an amazing coincidence or two, and an occasional shade of gothic melodrama, but no more than voracious readers of detective fiction and suckers for good stories might expect.

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