I have read nearly all the Slider books, and this is right up there. It is very difficult to combine humor with suspense but the author pulls it off impeccably, as always. Reading the book had me laughing out load at times, which was not an issue as I was in a holiday villa with family at the time. Don't let the humor divert you from the fact that Bill and his team are excellent detectives. Well worth a read. Really glad Netgalley accepted my request to have a review copy.

Princess Fuzzypants here:
If you are a fan of British police procedurals either in book or film form, you will enjoy this book. The characters are so well written that they leap off the page and the reader can see them clearly. There is great dialogue that sparkles with wit. There are lots of fun pop culture references and a good mystery.
A well dressed man is found murdered in the grounds of a run down auto repair shop. By the time the police discover his identity the cast of characters and the hidden secrets of those whose paths had crossed his has grown in size and importance. As each new layer is revealed,, things become more muddled until the final piece is revealed and all is clear.
Politics, money and social issues all combine to make an enjoyable read.
I give four purrs and two paws up.

Detective Chief Inspector Bill Slider and his team investigate the murder of a smartly-dressed businessman found dead in the yard of Eli Sampson’s car workshop. The victim has no ID and it takes a while for the police to identify him as Leon Kimmelman aka Leo King. Clues eventually point to Kimmelman being a tough right-hand man but not his employer's identity. Who was he the muscle for? Why was his flat searched? An incriminating video indicates Kimmelman may have been planning to blackmail a former MP. The link to a stalled development project in Davy Lane is the key.

This is another solid, dependable entry in the long-running Bill Slider police procedural series.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and Severn House with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and provided this review.

SHADOW PLAY (Police Proc-Bill Slider-England-Contemp) – VG
Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia – 20th in series
Severn House – Feb 2018
First Sentence: Where roads and railways cross old established ground, there are bound to be odd triangles left over, too small or too ill-favoured for development.
A well-dressed corpse with no identification turns up in the yard of an auto repair shop. The owner can’t identify him, nor does the flash-drive the police find in the victim’s pocket although it suggests he was blackmailing an MP associated with an important government project. The autopsy exposes a man whose injuries are at odds with his appearance. Was he working for someone else? It’s up to Inspector Bill Slider and his team to find the answers.
There is nothing better than a clean opening; no prologue, just straight into the story and, in this case, the crime. An observations point for those who are Anglophiles is how nice it is to have a British mystery which hasn’t been Americanized either in spelling or in vocabulary—“Lots of tyre tracks,”—although do have a sweater, rather than a jumper. Ah, well.
The author’s wry humor is always in evidence, as well as her use of dialect to establish a characters geographic, education, and economic background—“Ooh, look who it is. I ‘ope we’re no in dutch,’ Mrs. Sid said jocularly. …’We ha’n’t got any tofu, darlin’.’—but never so that it is cumbersome to read. Her descriptions of people are a treat—”in the entrance foyer was a very large bald bouncer. His shoulders and chest where big enough to warrant their own postcode, and made the rest of this body appear unnaturally tapered. He looked like what you’d get if you shaved a buffalo.” CH-E is very good at bringing all her characters to life.
One of the great appeals of Harrod-Eagles books is the characters and that she has created a true ensemble cast. We come to know each member of Slider’s team, and appreciate how each has their individual role within the team, but that they work as a unit. Yet the cast also extends to their personal relationships; their families. The characters are truly well-developed, each with their own personalities, such as Porson, Slider’s boss, with the way in which he mangles clichés—“You ought to be seeing the light for the trees by now.’ But in the end, it is still Slider who leads the team and demonstrates the reason why he is in charge, such as his deduction of how to find what the killer sought.
The balance between working the case and the teams’ personal lives, particularly Slider’s is nicely done. Even though it plays a smaller role in this book than previous ones, it always adds a realism to brightness to the story.
CH-E’s thoughtfulness is another of the many attractions to her writing—“Slider drifted a little, thinking about mankind’s propensity to turn any investigation to harmful purpose. … Oh, Mankind! Would you ever get your act together?”. She thinks about the small things: not only in the crime and it’s detection, but about society in general—“the catch-up meeting was held over lunch in the CID room. …All human life is here, Slider thought. You could write a treatise about how the lunchtime sarnie is a window on the soul.” A line toward the end really does say it all—“The absurdity of human ambition and human endeavor never failed to strike Slider.”
“Shadow Play” is a very well-written, solid police procedural with excellent characters, and humor, but also things about which to think.

This is the 20th book in the Bill Slider series, and Cynthia Harrod-Eagles continues to deliver a great story. Slider and Atherton are called to the murder scene of a well-dressed man who was found at an out-of-the-way car repair garage in a seedy neighborhood. From there, they begin their investigation. The book is a great police procedural with strong supporting characters.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This isn’t a cosy mystery – the cover makes that very plain. But neither is it some grimy, downbeat murder misery, where the main protagonist is fuelled by anger as he wades through a depressing cityscape awash with social deprivation. There isn’t anything wrong with the above – I just want to make it plain exactly what this book is about, because I’m not sure the cover fully conveys that.

Bill Slider is happily married to a musician, so he occasionally has to work from home when she is off playing in an orchestra somewhere. I like the fact that he isn’t some drink-soaked depressive with no home life – and that he also has a reasonable relationship with his superior, who he mostly likes and respects. There are likeable, chirpy characters in his team, who we learn about while they trudge through the various leads.

As for the murder – it’s a while before the team manage to get their teeth into this one and as I haven’t read the previous 19 books, I would suggest this is a useful entry point. I had time to get my bearings and work out what was happening to whom before the plot really took off. Though this isn’t a foot-to-the-floor action thriller, it’s far more the steady accumulation of clues through hard graft and constant checking.

I found the actual unravelling of the mystery unexpectedly engrossing as we begin to learn snippets about this rather shadowy character. By the time I’d reached the final quarter of the book, it was something of a struggle to put it down, while I read far longer than I’d intended to get to the end and discover whodunit. Harrod-Eagles writes characters very well as the final denouement produced a satisfying end to a solidly good murder mystery.

The next time I need a fix of a quality murder mystery, I shall definitely be going back to this series and sampling more of Bill Slider’s adventures – it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
9/10

I am a big fan of this British procedural series featuring Detective Inspector Bill Slider. "Shadow Play", like others in the series, is realistic and well-written. New readers could jump in and follow everything happening with no problem. In this book, each member of the Slider's team contributes toward solving the case, and I liked seeing how things unfolded.

I liked the book, but it isn't one of my favorites in the series. There isn't as much of Bill's home life, which I enjoy. Also, much of the murder investigation in this book required digging into improper property deals and those details grow tedious after a while. Although it's not my favorite, I still enjoyed catching up with Slider and his team.

I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Severn House. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone lies to police. For what reason - now that is the kicker. When the body of a businessman is discovered in the yard of Eli Simpson’s car workshop, Bill Slider and his team have little to build an investigation on - until a girlfriend identifies his body and offers the team their first clue. Mr King was someone’s right hand man, and someone was determined to find what he had hidden. As they pull at the threads they discover an mp on the cusp of being blackmailed and links between Mr King and a few building projects in the works, projects that stand to make a lot of people a lot of money but is it a motive for murder?

One thing I like about Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’s procedurals is how she clearly characterizes the various members of Slider’s team and how those individuals each have their own approach to questioning suspects and gathering background information. It makes the situation far more realistic. I also liked the way the plot was developed, each witness giving away more than they know as they lie. But between knowing and proving lies a lot of evidence and getting it is far from easy. The case is a complex and fascinating one.

If you like solid, realistic British police procedurals, you will definitely enjoy Shadow Play, as well as Cynthia Harrod-Eagles other novels.

5 / 5

I received a copy of Shadow Play from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Shadow Play is another well-plotted police procedural from Harrod-Eagles that follows Bill Slider and his team as they investigate the murder of a well-dressed man found in the yard of a car workshop. First the team must identify the man, then the investigations becomes even more confusing.

I felt less connected to Slider in this one; but Porson and his malapropisms remain amusing, partly because he is a genuinely supportive boss, and Atherton is making a gradual change from playboy to a more mature character.

Read in Oct.

NetGalley/Severn House

3,5 stars


Had I known that Shadow Play was the book#20 in the series, I would have never requested it - I prefer to read my series from the very beginning and in the right order. Besides, I’ve recently made some negative experience with the sequels that were parts of a series and shouldn’t be read as a stand-alone.

Surprise-surprise! Shadow Play COULD be read as a stand-alone. I think though, I could have enjoyed it much more, had I had more time to create a stronger emotional connection to the characters. To board the series at the book #20 is very optimistic. And of course it is difficult to be on the same level with those readers who got to know the characters from the birth. Nevertheless, I would say, the structure of the plot gives you a good opportunity to enter the story at any book.

What I enjoyed here mostly is the team work. They are not just good colleagues that worked successful together, they all good friends. There is no a MAIN CHARACTER in the usual sense of it or how one could expect from the series with the name of a team leader in the title. Bill Slider doesn’t dominate this installment, and I'm not sure he DID it before.
I had a lot of fun with the guys there. The investigation was interesting and not predictable, only it turned out to be a little bit too real estate/construction loaded for my taste.


Not a WOW mystery, but well-written, solid and entertaining through and through. I mostly enjoyed the dialogues, cheery banter and British humor.

Hi Karen,

My next review is:-“Shadow Play:A Bill Slider Mystery”, written by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles and published in hardcover by Severn House Publishers Ltd. 224 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0727887511

Bill Slider and his team investigate the murder of a victim with a decidedly shady past in this gripping contemporary mystery.
The body of a smartly-dressed businessman turns up in the yard of Eli Simpson's car workshop. But there's no ID in the pockets and Eli swears he's never seen the man before.
Then a girlfriend turns up with a name, and claims the victim told her he was someone's right hand man?. But old fractures and scars, discovered at the autopsy, suggest a more colourful past. For ?right hand man?, DCI Bill Slider and his team read ?enforcer?.
So who was Mr King? Who was he the muscle for? What did he have to do with the Davy Lane project, and the blackmailing of an MP? And, most crucially, what did he know that made someone decide to terminally muscle the muscle?

I enjoyed reading this book tremendously as it is a very thoroughly well researched police procedural with a very well thought out plot.

Anyway, the author is very prolific and has dozens of books to her name. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles was born and educated in London and had a variety of jobs in the commercial world before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Bill Slider mysteries and the historical Morland Dynasty series. She lives in London, is married with three children and enjoys music, wine, gardening, horses and the English countryside.

I enjoyed this latest one enormously and look forward to reading many more books from this very gifted author in this series or any of the others. Very strongly recommended. I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House for an advance copy of Shadow Play, the twentieth novel to feature Bill Slider of The Met.

Best wishes,

Terry Halligan








Best wishes,

Terry
(To Be published in due course on eurocrime.co.uk)

The gang's all here in Harrod-Eagles' latest Bill Slider. The mystery is a knotted yarn that requires the delicate unraveling for which Slider's team is well-known. Slider and all his staff enjoy a well-deserved rest in this book, showing off their investigative and interviewing skills, and flirting with a naughty politician but not to the degree that police higher-ups feel threatened. Wordplay provides a chuckle to begin each chapter.

I read this via Netgalley as a preview copy. I have to say that Shadow play seemed to be a very appropriate title for it. I felt that it was a pretty run-of-the-mill detective novel with rather shadowy characters. I found it rather confusing to sort out all the different detectives and I was rather surprised when one of the detectives turned out to be female as I got halfway through the book. I had obviously missed that one. I was also rather surprised to read that one of them was styled as Pirates of the Caribbean , complete with plaited beard., hardly low key for a detective I would have thought. Not bad, but not great either.

I so enjoyed this U.K. police procedural mystery. It’s about corruption in the government, murder, blackmail and a fantastic group of police officers. The humour in the story is one of the many
reasons that I highly recommend this book.

The Bill Slider books are one of my favourite series. There is a guarantee of a good mystery, and the characters are realistic and likeable. Ms Harrod-Eagles has a wonderful skill with witty dialogue while still having an interesting plot.
Shadow Play is a worthy addition, with Bill Slider and Jim Atherton investigating the death of an unnamed man with their usual tenacity.

Thank you Netgalley and Severn House for the eARC and many thanks to Cynthia Harrod-Eagles for the many hours of pleasure her books have given me over the years...I've read every book in the Bill Slider series, it's one of the best around.
In this outing, DCI Slider and DS Atherton are called to a rundown, seedy area of London where the owner of a dilapidated auto repair shop called in the finding of a body on his doorstep. The well-dressed man, out of place in the area, had been killed by a massive blow to his head.
It takes quite a while before they identify the man and when they carefully search his flat, they find an extremely compromising video of a high ranking politician. It was obvious the place had been gone over before the police got to it, but the person (s) missed the video.
Slider and Atherton believe the politician was being blackmailed, but during his interview, he seems to genuinely be shocked there is a video of his shenanigans.
As the investigation proceeds, an ugly picture emerges: listed buildings and sites being bought and sold by shadowy companies, greed and financial underhandedness with the players hoping to make millions by skating around the rules and regulations.
Every book in the series is an excellent mystery and police procedural; the author has a beautiful way with words and I love the police team. And the humour is so refreshing, even the chapter headlines are fun. But best of all are Porson's (the team's superintendent) malapropisms. For example, his "gnashing of feet" had me in stitches as I choked on my cookie.
It's amazing how the series has stayed so fresh (I believe this is no. 20), it's a testament to the author's writing chops. I absolutely love these books and recommend every single one of them!

In addition to a good plot, the author implores an outstanding imagination to her graphic descriptions of people, places, and situations.

I read the Kindle Edition.

4 stars

DCI Slider and DS Atherton respond to a body in a broken-down auto repair shop. The deceased is a well -dressed man completely out of place in that neighborhood. He has no identification on him. The shop owner says he does not know the man.

They begin the investigation by interviewing the local citizenry. They learn some interesting facts and local history about the owner of the shop but little else. They talk to Eli, the shop owner’s, wife and she basically unloads on them. Eventually, the dead man’s girlfriend comes in and identifies him. He is a Mr. King. She doesn’t know exactly who he worked for or what he did for a living.

The autopsy reveals many old fractures of Mr. King’s bones and other wounds that indicate that he has had a rough life. DCI Slider and his team begin to wonder if this guy was someone’s enforcer – like a crime boss.

This is a true police procedural. The story develops slowly and through patient and professional police work. They interview witnesses, follow clues and are proactive in identifying the man and seeking his killer.

This book is very well written and plotted as are all of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ novels. The suspense begins immediately, but builds rather slowly as the police investigation proceeds. I liked the way DCI Slider’s team pulled together at their mutual tasks. DCI Slider himself seemed a true professional. I have not read very many of Ms. Harrod-Eagles’ novels, but I am re-committed to reading more of them.

I want to thank NetGalley and Severn House for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read and enjoy.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House for an advance copy of Shadow Play, the twentieth novel to feature Bill Slider of The Met.

Bill and the team are called out to a suspicious death. The body of a man in his 50s has been found near a rundown backstreet garage but with nothing in his pockets to identify him the team have difficulty knowing where to start and Superintendent Porson wants them to keep it low key i.e. low budget. That changes when they identify the corpse and discover that he was positioning himself to blackmail a senior politician.

I thoroughly enjoyed Shadow Play. It is a straightforward police procedural where the slow uncovering of facts leads to the solution. It could be regarded as old fashioned but I prefer the term traditional in the sense that the narrative is told wholly from the investigators' point of view and it is up to the reader to try and get there first. I guessed bits of it but nowhere near the whole so it is an engrossing puzzle. I really like this approach and enjoy trying to work out the story of the murder. I also like the marrying of the traditional investigation with the latest technology where CCTV, ANPR and phone data play a large part.

As fits a more traditional novel characterisation plays second fiddle to plotting. The reader never really gets to know Bill Slider whom I suspect of being a bit bolshie under his calm exterior. The rest of the team are fairly interchangeable and I still had difficulty separating one from the other by the end of the novel. It's mostly unimportant as they work as a cohesive team although their bickering can be amusing.

Shadow Play is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.