One of the best husband-wife teams in crime fiction today
Dust to Dust
by Margaret Duffy
Severn House
Mystery & Thrillers, General Fiction (Adult)
Pub Date 01 Aug 2016
Review
I always enjoy reading Margaret Duffy’s novels, and Dust to Dust is definitely one I would recommend to anyone liking a hint of espionage with their crime fiction. Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley are one of the most compelling husband and wife teams in print.
Not long ago I read Margaret Duffy’s first novel featuring Patrick Gillard (former spy turned NCA agent) and his wife Ingrid Langley (writer/NCA partner). I absolutely loved it. Dust to Dust only serves to strengthen my opinion of the series - it is simply wonderful, immersing the reader in a complicated plot filled with both action and suspense. There are quite a few twists and turns that will catch the reader by surprise.
While Duffy is masterful at creating a plot that is both complex and believable, it is her husband and wife team that appeals to me most. Patrick and Ingrid remind me a bit of Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence. (Who are nothing like the BBC’s most recent production) They have a loving marriage and are partners with varying strengths. They work well together and separately, and there is no sense of competition or one-upmanship. They listen to each other. Ingrid, like Tuppence, is no damsel in distress. She is clever, creative and brave. She also provides much needed emotional support for Patrick. You feel that together they can face any challenge, despite the danger.
In Dust to Dust, Patrick and Ingrid are faced with the murder of Richard Daws, Patrick’s mentor, a senior NCA official with ties to MI5 and other government organizations. The police have little to go on regarding the 14th Earl of Hartwood’s murder, and Daws’s replacement, Marcia Lindersland seems hell-bent on keeping Patrick and Ingrid off the case. Is it because Daws suspected Lindersland of being crooked, or is it related to the release of Nicholas Haldane, an ex-civil servant who tried to kill Daws, Patrick and Ingrid in the past and blames them for his incarceration? The plot thickens when Lindersland goes missing.
5/5
I received a copy of Dust to Dust from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
—Crittermom
Description
Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley face their biggest challenge to date when senior NCA official Richard Daws is murdered.
The murder of Richard Daws, 14th Earl of Hartwood and a senior official at the National Crime Agency at his home – the highly secure Hartwood Castle – has sent shockwaves through MI5, MI6 and the Met.
Patrick Gillard, Daws’ protégé and ‘adviser’ to the NCA, along with his wife and working partner, Ingrid Langley, vows to find his killer. Soon hunting down the recently out-of-jail Nicholas Haldane – a bent ex-civil servant who once tried to kill Daws, as well as dealing with the arrival of Irvine Baumgarten, an American claiming to be Daws’ heir, and the suspicious disappearance of Daws’ replacement at the NCA, Marcia Lindersland, not to mention MI5 on their tails, Patrick and Ingrid face a formidable task to catch Daws’ killer.
