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Glass Houses (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries)

by Jane Haddam

Glass Houses (Gregor Demarkian Mysteries) Cover

ISBN13: 9780312343071
ISBN10: 0312343078
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: None
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $13.75!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

For over a year, Philadelphia has been plagued by a serial killer dubbed the Plate Glass Killer by the media.  But finally, the police think they’ve caught a break – a man has been arrested at the site of the most recent murder, covered in the victim’s blood.  The man taken into custody is Henry Tyder, the scion of one of the most socially prominent families on Philadelphia’s Main Line, a family that possesses the largest tracts of real estate in the city.  He’s also a hopeless alcoholic, frequently homeless and often estranged from his family.

     Although Tyder has apparently confessed to the crime, his attorney believes him to be too disordered to be capable of actually committing the crimes and asks Gregor Demarkian, retired head of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit, to look into the case.  Gregor, however, has other things on his mind – after having been away for nearly a year without a word to him, his live-in girlfriend, Bennis Hannaford, has returned to Cavanaugh Street. And everyone seems to have seen her but Gregor. While he waits for Bennis to finally appear, Gregor finds himself enmeshed in complex case of the Plate Glass Killer.  Specifically, what would have drive Tyder to confess to crimes he was seemingly incapable of committing and, more importantly, if Tyder isn’t the killer, then who really is behind the murders of the Plate Glass Killer.

Review:

"In the 22nd Gregor Demarkian book (after 2006's Hardscrabble Road), Haddam as usual effortlessly melds a puzzling mystery — a baffling serial murder case in Philadelphia — with the latest developments in the romance between her FBI profiler hero and his longtime lover, Bennis Hannaford. The perpetrator, named the Plate Glass Killer, targets unattractive middle-aged women, leaving their bodies in alleys, their faces mutilated by glass. The body count has reached double digits by the time Gregor (known popularly as the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot) is consulted, and he finds that the official investigation is a mess due to hostility among the senior detectives. The resolution may be a tad far-fetched, but the intelligent, thoughtful prose elevates this twisty whodunit far above most other contemporary traditional mysteries. The author also deserves plaudits for making the long and complex Gregor-Bennis relationship accessible to first-time readers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Philadelphia has been gripped by a serial killer, dubbed the Plate Glass Killer. When a down-and-out member of a socially prominent family is arrested and falsely confesses to the latest murder, Gregor Demarkian is called to look into the case.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
jcat225, March 20, 2007 (view all comments by jcat225)
Jane Haddam always delights with her strong writing and captivating characters.

Gregor Demarkian, a retired FBI agent, is drawn into another case threatening his home city of Philadelphia.
As in all of the Demarkian mysteries, the true pleasure is in reading the inner monologues the character has about matters related and unrelated to the case. Gregor Demarkian is one of those fictional beings readers wish truly existed.

The relationships with friends and neighbors are also a large part of any Haddam story and are even better written now that Haddam is publishing with a company that does not insist on holidays playing a central role in the plot. Longtime readers are waiting for a resolution on Demarkian's relationship with Bennis which may or may not come with this book.

Of all the widowed detectives/sherrifs, police officers/ and mystery solving civilians out there in the land of mystery writing with its unusually high death rate for spouses-Demarkian's relationship with Bennis is the closest to reality with its doubts, misteps, and joy.

Oh, and the mystery: always well plotted.

Enjoy and go find Haddam's earlier work if she is a new author to you.

JCat225
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(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9780312343071
Subtitle:
A Gregor Demarkian Novel
Author:
Haddam, Jane
Publisher:
St. Martin's Minotaur
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Private investigators
Subject:
Alcoholics
Series:
Gregor Demarkian Mysteries
Publication Date:
20070417
Binding:
HC
Language:
English
Pages:
304
Dimensions:
9.34x6.26x1.00 in. 1.08 lbs.

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