Easeful Death

Starred review from March 1, 2025
Harrod-Eagles' latest entry in her long-running Bill Slider police-procedural series (after Before I Sleep, 2023) has it all--it's entertaining, suspenseful, tragic, funny, gripping, and eminently satisfying, showing the best and worst of the human race. Slider and his team are investigating the tragic death of teenager Rhianne Morgan. Although she came from a solidly middle-class family, she was, by all accounts, a troubled young woman who used men, sex, and drugs to escape. Her stepfather is an easy suspect, but so are Rhianne's many boyfriends and a pedophile who works in the area after being released from prison. The challenging investigation shows just how plodding, frustrating, and demanding modern policing can be, but the stress is alleviated (at least for readers) by the laugh-out-loud humor (including Slider's boss' hilarious malapropisms), the foibles and comradery of Slider's team, and the solid family life that helps Slider forget--at least temporarily--the darker side of his job. Finely honed instincts, persistence, and experience eventually lead to the discovery of the killer, which is as sad and disturbing as it is satisfying. As usual, Harrod-Eagles hits the mark and makes this a fine read for all fans of police procedurals.

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March 15, 2025
DCI Bill Slider and his staff at Shepherd's Bush CID tackle the case of an 18-year-old murdered in the kitchen of her family's quiet home. Rhianne Morgan's death was anything but easeful. Even though there's no evidence of a ligature, the police surgeon insists she was strangled hours before her stepfather, estate agent David Morgan, found her body and destroyed all hope of recovering evidence from a crime scene in his frantic attempts to revive her. Once DS Jim Atherton and his mates have sifted through the complicated relations surrounding her mother and stepfather, both of whom have been married before, three leading suspects emerge. A local man named Andrew Denton has just been released from prison, still loudly proclaiming his innocence after serving a sentence for aggravated rape. Corey Willans, the older brother of Rhianne's boyfriend, Kenton, bolted when police officers tried to question him and seems to have had a thing with Rhianne himself. And Rhianne's stepfather, David, a skirt-chaser who turns out to have faked his alibi, is anything but trustworthy. In addition, Rhianne's well-attested fondness for older men raises the possibility of still other suspects lurking in the shadows. With so many suspicious characters and so many shifting leads, it's no wonder that Slider's boss, Det. Supt. Porson, complains, "It's like nailing jelly to the wall, this case." As usual, Harrod-Eagles slips updates about her detectives' domestic lives into her coolly professional account of the teamwork that eventually identifies Rhianne's killer. A model British procedural from a proven veteran.

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