The Killing of Katie Steelstock by Michael Gilbert

 

I have to agree with the review on this Penguin cover that this novel is "something of a masterpiece."  I started it one late evening and was on page 100 before I could put it down.  The next night I was exhausted (thanks, Frederick) and planned to only read 10 or so pages and couldn't put it down until I had finished--and it was well after 2 am.  The book was published in 1980, which just goes to show that Gilbert had a prolific writing career that spanned decades and he really changed his novels to move with the times. I truly envy that sort of creative ability. This novel is a stand-alone story and we've not met any of the characters before--which means that any of them could be killed at any time and anyone can turn out not to be what they seem--from fusty deaf old maids to slow-witted stolid police officers.  

The nub of the novel is that Katie is from a very small town but has made it to the Big Time in London.  She started her career when just a teen by singing a one-hit-wonder pop tune that was all over the radio for a few weeks. (The strongest compliment any of the characters gave it was that once you heard it, you never forgot it.) That pop tune and her cover on the record sleeve gave her a split second of fame and just enough money to get a foot in a bigger door. That pop tune was followed by modeling--including "racy pics"--and then a small part on an extremely successful, long running TV show, a role that she used to outshine the established famous actors she was onscreen with--not the way to make friends but it is a way to influence people. She had just reached the point where her initial and disadvantageous contract was set to expire and she was shopping for a new manager, new TV show deals, and even talking about getting a chance on the Big Screen. Meanwhile, back home, (to which she returned to escape the madness of the London party scene), her widowed mother and four siblings live in a relatively big old home where Katie stays in a converted carriage house, now her apartment. And while everyone in town starts every sentence with "Our Katie..." what they don't say (until after she is dead) is that that she isn't loved and adored by those who know her best. The primary problem with Their Katie is that she is ambitious (obviously), intelligent (but pretends not to be if that helps her), has an extremely "sharp tongue," and often brages to anyone who will listen that she knows just how to use people: she graces them with her attentions just to leave them dangling. In particular, she likes to ask for favors but then, after someone has gone out of their way to accomodate those asks, she changes her mind and tells them she doesn't need them after all. Do they tell her to pound sand?  Never.  Why not?  Because she is the posterchild of this backwater village, very good looking, has sex appeal, and all males aged 16-60 want an upskirt pic (or whatever the equivalent of that in the late 70s was) of her.  Is it any wonder she ends up dead?    

If all that doesn't sound tawdry enough, police investigations expose all sorts of nasty goings on: a bullying business man who keep tight control over anyone he can but also sneaks off to a secret peep hole in a boathouse club closet he uses to secretly watch teens fondle each other in boats stored in the boathouse off season; a 30 something journalist who professes anarchism but spends all his free time trying to impress preteen boys who think his smart alec remarks about "The Man" are cool.... We also see the ubiquitous generation gap has bloomed into a generation chasm and middle aged fathers who come down like a ton of bricks on their 20-something daughters for staying out late with strange men are astonished when those daughters pack up and move out of their homes and into apartments with loser boyfriends. And NO one respects the police or trusts them to find the "real killer."  The novel ends with a nail biting courtroom battle managed by an old school judge who both knows the law and has no time for bullshit lawyers who are more interested in impressing future law firm partners than ensuring a fair trial. 

All this is to say: not a "cosy murder mystery" but still not as nasty as what tends to get published since the 1990s. (Murder victims aren't peeled so skins can be stitched into outfits for the killer....) But the discussions of law are excellent (Gilbert is still a lawyer first, after all) and the characters are very well developed.