Aphrodite - Softcover

Andrews, Russell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446614963 ISBN 13: 9780446614962

Publisher: Vision, 2005

Synopsis

A man burdened by his past, former top homicide cop Justin Westwood has retreated to a small-town Long Island police force. Drowning his troubles in mindless traffic duty and lots of scotch, he's awakened to action when a young woman journalist is brutally murdered. She had recently made some errors in the obituary of a man from a local retirement home, but that's not the kind of mistake that brings professional hit men to your door-or the FBI to town. Attempting to unravel the puzzle, Justin finds that everyone-the cops, the FBI, and one of the strangest professional killing teams ever seen-seems to be one step ahead of him, disposing of witnesses and setting him up for the fall. But this reality check is just what Justin needs, and he'll stop at nothing to discover the true meaning of "Aphrodite"-and maybe save himself.

About this title

Review

Aphrodite, in Russell Andrews' new switchback of a thriller, is a secret over which people will kill and kill again. The book starts with a string of deaths--a Washington intern who is having an affair, a philosopher specialising in social ethics, and a reporter who started checking up on some mistakes she made in a movie star's obituary--that seem to have nothing whatsoever in common. Westwood, the cop who finds himself investigating the dead journalist, really wants it to be an accident--he has things in his past that make him not want ever again to be a serious policeman--but he finds clues, and then he finds a witness--the dead woman's yoga-instructor. At that point, his troubles really begin.

Andrews is fascinating when writing about the secret so important that people have to die for it, but the real interest of the book is in Westwood and the process whereby he stretches, and starts using again, an intellect, a physical toughness and a capacity for ruthlessness with which he really thought he was done for good. The mystery is inventive enough--but Andrews makes us care about his hero and the woman he finds himself protecting. --Roz Kaveney

Review

for ICARUS: 'I defy you to figure out who dunnit, why they dunnit, or how they dunnit.' JANET EVANOVICH 'Furious, sexually-fueled, and mind-bending - a unique thriller.' William Diehl for GIDEON: 'A fast moving thriller in the Grisham genre.' Sunday Telegraph 'Pure reading entertainment as good as you'll ever find' CLIVE CUSSLER

Edition details

• Publisher: Vision
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446614963
• ISBN 13: 9780446614962
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 464