The Big Payoff

by Janice Law

Book Overview

Set at the time of the North Sea oil boom, The Big Payoff marks the debut of Anna Peters, the witty, cynical character Booklist called "among the most complex, fully drawn female leads in crime... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395219000
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Length: 179 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A grand new character was introduced

Anna Peters was one of the first of a new kind of mystery heroine who has grown older gracefully during her career. This first novel also captured the spirit of a big match soccer day in Scotland, an unexpected bonus.

First and Best

The Big Payoff, originally released in 1976, is the first - and perhaps best - novel in Law's long-running Anna Peters mystery series. Starring one of the genre's most fully realized female detectives, Law's novel seems oddly prescient today considering this generation's new-found fascination with smart, hip sleuths. Despite plumbing a genre that might seem dated - that of the "evil business conglomerate" (in this case the New World Oil corporation) - Law's novel never breaks stride and reads as fresh today as it did some 25 years ago. In fact, had this novel been released today by a younger author with a promotional push, it might become a modest hit. As it is, the Big Payoff deserves to move beyond its status as a cult classic (Law's novels are a modest favorite among the library set; first editions tend to command modest prices) - it is a fine detective novel with a bold central character that still has resonance. Others in the series worth checking out: Under Orion, Gemini Trip and the kooky Death Under Par, one of the funnier novels about golf and murder.

The first, and possibly the best in the Anna Peters series.

A very clever tale of a low-paid secretary (Anna Peters) who discovers her bosses at New World Oil are up to no good. As in the works of Polish sci-fi author Stanislav Lem, Law wraps some biting social commentary in a taut, well-paced and jazzily written mystery. If this book was put back into print, it would be something of a period classic-something on the order of a "Foxy Brown." The first of a series of adventures featuring the rather unusual Ms. Peters.