Death Club

by Claire McNab

Book Overview

When a murderer tees off at the world's most prestigious women's golf tournament, Australian top cop Carol Ashton becomes an unwilling player in a much deadlier game. Loaded with brains, style, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1562802674
• ISBN13: 9781562802677
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Naiad Press
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Keeps the reader guessing until the very end of the story

A native Aussie, Claire McNab, now living in Los Angeles, is the author of thirteen Detective Inspector Carol Ashton mysteries and two Denise Cleever mysteries, Murder Undercover and Death Understood. Her next Denise Cleever mystery is due out in the fall of 2001 and is entitled Out Of Sight. Claire McNab presently teaches fiction writing in the UCLA Extension program in Writing.As its title implies, Death Club, the latest mystery featuring Carol Ashton as lead crime fighter, is set at the Whitlew Country Club. Gussie Whitlew is throwing a huge golf tournament entitled The Whitlew Challenge. Gussie Whitlew is a fashion designer who is fantastically wealthy and is used to her own way. When her leading challenger, Fiona Hawk, is found dead on the fourth hole of the course, the tournament is thrown into disarray. Carol is on the case, and her special gift for tracking that reveals clues and draws out witnesses other officers would miss:"Carol smiled. `I don't scream,' she said. `It doesn't go with my position.' He made an amused sound, then said, `You can call me Vinny, if you like. I haven't been Vincent Goss for a long, long time.' He raised one hand to knock his knuckles gently against the side of his head. `Scrambled,' he said. `Before I had problems, I was a university lecturer. Economics. Isn't that a laugh?'"Indeed, one of Claire McNab's strongest suits is her development of character. She has an uncanny understanding of human nature. It reminds this reviewer of Jane Marple's statement that people are "not so very different." Death Club proves this point over and over, as Carol Ashton instinctively ferrets out the bare details of the case. McNab is wonderful at keeping the reader guessing until the very end of the story. Carol does most of the dirty work herself, including the postmortem, wiring herself up, and even placing herself in danger for a final denouement.McNab leads her readers on a merry chase. Her style is sassy, fun, and is full of chills and spills. She knows her craft, and isn't afraid to stretch a little to flesh out her characters. Carol Ashton is steady, takes no nonsense from those around her, but isn't afraid to have doubts about herself and her relationships. She is a strong woman with keen insight who keeps us glued and guessing.

McNab's Back on Track!

Another good mystery from McNab. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is back in Australia after her adventures in Washington. She called in to investigate the murder of a professional golfer at Australia's premiere women's golf tournament. As Bourke, Ashton's associate, says, "We have a victim who has more enemies than friends, a suspect list that's growing, and a wide-open time of death, so that practically everyone seems to have had the opportunity to do murder." But Ashton and her team painstakingly investigate each clue as it's presented to them until Ashton finally figures out who committed murder. I was pretty smug because I had it figured out who the murderer was about half way through. I remained smug right up to the moment Ashton revealed who the real murderer was - and, of course, McNab had not tricked me at all - she had only written a villanous character who I was willing to lay the murder on. McNab got off course a few books back, but she's back on course and writing good procedurals. Her characters are well drawn and keep growing, her plotting is excellent and she's even writing better than she had been. This is an excellent read!!