Standing in the Shadows

by Michelle Spring

Book Overview

The shocking murder lingered in the tabloids for weeks. A sweet elderly lady viciously killed in a town outside Cambridge, her skull crushed with a concrete block by her eleven-year-old foster child, Daryll Flatt. Hideous as the crime was, the case was closed when the boy, curled up in the crack of a willow tree, confessed to the murder. Now, two years later, the boys older brother, Howard, hires private investigator Laura Principal to revisit the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345424921
• ISBN13: 9780345424921
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Fawcett
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.8" x 4.0"

Customer Reviews

CHILD'S PLAY

This is my first Michelle Spring novel, and it is a very well-done effort. It's heavily "British" in its pacing and characterizations, but Spring's prose has verve and bite, sprinkled with some humorous moments as well. Little Darryl - did he really kill his foster mother so viciously? He says he did, and so he's been incarcerated for two years. His older brother approaches PI Laura Principal to find out not if his little brother did the deed, but WHY? Laura's fascination and dedication involve her in some dark family secrets and some other interesting characters. Principal is a fresh heroine, one with a heart and a sense of commitment. The villain is a surprise in some ways and the rationale in its solution quite believable. A good book; will definitely try the remaining ones in the series.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Sensitive handling of a difficult subject

Crimes committed by children are a subject we all naturally find disturbing, but this latest instalment in Michelle Spring's Laura Principal series handles the topic with sensitivity, care and real empathy. There is nothing sensationalistic or superficial about this book, and as with the rest of the series, even minor characters emerge as real, well-rounded people. You find yourself guessing - did Daryll do it? Why did he do it? If not him, then who else might have done it and why? As with human nature, nothing is as simple as it appears on the surface, but you are kept in suspense as the plot is tightly controlled and elegantly resolved. My favorite in a series that just gets better and better.