When distinguished civil servant Dr. David Hamilton suddenly vanished from his job and his London home, friends and relatives were both worried and mystified. But they were shocked when they learned the reason for his disappearance.
Dr. Hamilton, his friends were told, was suffering from AIDS. He had left the country within days of hearing the terrible news from his doctor. Now he was in Europe in the last ditch attempt to get treatment.
The news about David Hamilton’s plight was broken to callers at his elegant Edwardian home in Brixton by his friends Kingsley Rotardier. Now he explained that he was looking after the flat while Dr. Hamilton was away fighting for his life.
In fact, Dr. Hamilton had already lost his life, and it had nothing to do with AIDS. In later 1985 he had been murdered by his gay lover Rotardier and his body skilfully disposed of. But it was to be months before Dr. Hamilton’s friend became suspicious, and nearly a year before police launched a murder investigation.
"I'm not sure who the audience would be for this work, but it is definitely hindered by the grammar and spelling issues."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
These are true crime cases, athough that's not mentioned in the description. Only half the book is about the Vanishing Civil Servant (a.k.a the David Hamilton murder). The next is an American murder in Florida and the last section a piece about the Charing Cross Trunk murder.
I wish I could rate it higher. There are several reasons I can't.
One is the typos and grammar errors. There are several typos of the type spell check won't catch - e.g. lad for had (page 1), "Scullion were sure" (loc 77) - There are also a few sentences that directly contradict the previous text e.g. "...people would never expect him to write. It would be suspicious if he didn't." This type of error persists throughout the book, and it is jarring.
As a non-fiction retelling, I can't credit the 'plot twists' to the author. It is a very high level overview of the cases, without getting into the detail, and I have read better retellings. There aren't really enough procedural details to interest researchers, nor enough drama for mystery readers.
I'm not sure who the audience would be for this work, but it is definitely hindered by the grammar and spelling issues.
Well despite the hindered by grammar part, I have to say that tittle is pretty intriguing. I could not help but think it as some kind of metaphor for society, in that you can probably argue that civic work seems to be a thing of the past, at least it does around these parts. Might make for an interesting read, though.
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