{ "item_title" : "Death Duty", "item_author" : [" George East "], "item_description" : "DEATH DUTY is the first Inspector Mowgley murder mystery. The main character Jack is a cynical, world-weary, anti-authority and otherwise decidedly maverick CID officer. But as readers will discover, Jack Mowgley is very different from any other literary plainclothes policeman. For instance, he sleeps on a defunct lightship, drives a terminally ill Lada and has 'ACAB' (All Coppers Are Bastards) tattooed on his knuckles? He gets booze and baccy supplies by smuggling them through the continental ferry port he is supposed to be keeping free of crime?The setting for DEATH DUTY is 1999, with the world on the brink of a new millennium. Jack Mowgley, it is commonly agreed, is on the brink of enforced early retirement. Or worse. Attitudes are changing, and those in authority think officers like Mowgley have no part to play in the Modern Police Force.A painful divorce resulted in our flawed hero being dispossessed of his home in Hampshire and lumbered with the crippling mortgage on a pretentious ruin in Normandy. It does not lessen the pain that his wife insisted on buying La Cour ('The Yard') before running off with its suave French vendor. At least. Mowgley reflects in a positive pub moment, owning the expensive ruin means he can call himself Mowgley of the Yard.The only woman in Jack Mowgley's life is CID Sergeant Catherine McCarthy. As well as his official bag-carrier, she is Mowgley's confidante, bringer of solace, and fierce protector from his host of detractors and those who would bring him down. She is also the only person who can keep up with him in the pub.DEATH DUTY opens as Catherine arrives in the scrap yard which is Mowgley's current abode to report on a tragedy. A woman passenger has disappeared from the deck of a ferry on a night crossing to Cherbourg. As the case develops, Mowgley and his assistant uncover increasing evidence that this is anything but a straightforward death at sea...WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT MOWGLEY: I was totally absorbed as the tale unfolded. Not so much by the plot, but by waiting for the next assault on political correctness.Our hero is no Bergerac and thank goodness for that. Mowgley is refreshingly sordid and I was secretly pleased to find he has absolutely no redeeming characteristics.PC he most certainly ain't - and the tale is much the better for it.Extract: Feeling his head hurt again, Mowgley struggled to an upright position and reached instinctively for his tobacco tin.He had read somewhere that, if you smoked a cigarette within half an hour of waking up in the morning, you were addicted to nicotine. Fucking brilliant. The team of scientists who came up with that one were probably even now conducting an exhaustive research programme to prove that bears shat in woods.After saying good morning to his posters of Johnny Cash and Muhammad Ali in his Cassius Clay days, he looked for his clothes while Melons told him about the overboard.It was their first for nearly two years, she reminded him, and their first ever woman. It all seemed pretty straightforward, but with it being a French boat there would be the usual complications.Technically, it's all down to the Frogs, but they're more than happy for us to get involved. From their point of view, it's only a British woman, and not as if it's one of theirs.Charming. Mowgley found his right sock hanging from a broken light socket on the starboard bulkhead, then asked: What about the Coastguard?They told all ships to stop looking after the standard three hours. No point at that time of night and in those conditions, but they had to go through the motions. She shivered. Poor woman, what a way to go.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/90/874/705/1908747056_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "15.99", "online_price" : "15.99", "our_price" : "15.99", "club_price" : "15.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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