I'll Sing You Two-O

David Webb #9

by Anthea Fraser

DCI David Webb's twelfth case is set into motion by the brutal murder of the twins once known as "The Lily-White Boys." At first, Monica Tovey is annoyed by the van abandoned outside her home. But when its gruesome contents are discovered - the bodies of the White twins - fear overshadows irritation, and Monica suddenly finds her own life in danger. Soon after the murders are discovered, unsettling events disturb the serenity of the English town of Shillingham. DCI Webb suspects that the burglaries, near-riots among soccer fans, low-flying airplanes, and mysterious phone calls may not be unrelated. He refuses to be deterred by the evasions and denials with which his inquiries are met. Webb must find the killers of "The Lily-White Boys" before Monica Tovey's life is forever turned on end.

Genres: Mystery

188 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

aka Vanessa Graham

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a van is dumped outside the home of Monica Tovey the police become involved when two bodies are discovered inside. DCI David Webb investigates.
An entertaining mystery
Originally published in 1991

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disreputable looking van is apparently dumped outside Monica Tovey's house. She runs a fashionable and upmarket dress shop and is a magistrate and when it is still there a few hours later she reports it to the police. No one could have predicted the gruesome cargo it held.

But this is just the first in a series of unsettling events which affect Monica much more closely than she would wish in the next few days. DCI David Webb and his team are baffled by the double murder but as they set out to investigate it they uncover more and more strange and apparently unrelated events and tread on more than a few toes.

This is a well written and cleverly plotted crime novel with well drawn and believable characters. I like the way characters who have appeared in previous novels in the series reappear again in later ones so that the reader really gets a feeling of the community which is the background to this excellent series.

[Cynthia Grove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite intricate plotting. (Sadly the kindle edition suffers from very poor translation from print to digital making the story harder to follow than it should be.) There are some highly interesting characters with complex relationships. There are also sub-plots so working out who belongs where in each strand is challenging at times.
Nonetheless this is an enjoyable story and worth persisting with.

[Doug Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the White twins are found dead in their dirty van, some people are not surprised, since they had been known to be football hooligans, thieves, and pot smokers. Others mourn that the two unique young men with the eerily close mutual bond have died so young. DCI David Webb has to figure out what they knew and/or did that led to their murders. The answer may lie in the cargo carried by the mysterious low-flying plane that had been seen in the area on the night of May 12.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

The White twins were trouble. They are never far from a fight, and don't have a problem with breaking into houses. Their main business is washing windows, and one day they see something which suggests the possibility of extra cash with blackmail. They weren't counting on getting murdered, of course and it's up to DCI Webb and his fellow officers to solve the murder, never realizing that this case was only the tip of the iceberg.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't much care for this book, but it could have been the Kindle version that was at fault. I'd be reading about one set of characters and the next sentence would bring in another set. The entire book was like that and it was very difficult to keep track of who was who and where and who did what at what time, and all the rest.

[Doreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific Series!

Another exciting murder mystery with DC I David Webb and his team. This involves murder, smuggling, intricate family situations and events from the past that effect family relations. Extremely well plotted and developed

[Lila · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is in the 2.5 to 3 star range for me.

[Shirley]

DCI Webb book 9

[B.V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthea Mary Fraser (born 1930) was inspired by her novelist-mother to be a writer, but her own first published novel had to wait until 1970. The 1974 paranormal novel Laura Possessed was her first break-through success, followed by six other books in a similar vein and some romantic suspense titles before she turned to crime fiction.

She created two series, the first with Detective Chief Inspector David Webb of the Shillingham police, totaling 16 novels in all from 1984 to 1999. The second is a series Fraser debuted in 2003 featuring biographer/freelance journalist Rona Parish, with the last of six books published in 2008. Fraser also served the crime fiction community as secretary of the Crime Writers' Association from 1986 to 1996.

The first twelve in the DCI Webb series all take their titles from the lyrics to the English folk song "Green Grow the Rushes-O," including "I'll Sing you Two-O" from 1991, the ninth entry in the Webb roster. The case is set in motion when clothing store owner and part-time town magistrate Monica Tovey finds a van abandoned outside her home. But when the van's gruesome contents—the bodies of the football-mad, window washing, petty-thief White twins—are discovered, unsettling events disturb the serenity of the English town of Shillingham, and Monica suddenly finds her own life in danger.

DCI Webb begins to suspect that recent town burglaries, near-riots among soccer fans, low-flying airplanes and mysterious phone calls may not be unrelated to the case. Webb is also an accomplished artist, and he frequently calls upon his skills to record his impressions and hone in on the murderer, as he does here.

Fraser has taken some heat in the past for creating unconvincing and/or unlikely killers but also collected frequent praise for her rendering of small-town settings, with Publishers Weekly noting that "Fraser's rendering of an English community is again impeccable, enabling a reader not only to take pleasure in the mystery itself...but also to feel part of the life of a small, worried town," and Kirkus adding that it's "a competent, civilized police procedural, enhanced by sensitive probing of snarled relationships and a nicely drawn small-town ambiance."

PW also once characterized Fraser's writing as "succinct," with "her plots developed quickly, her prose straight to the point, with neither narrative nor character suffering from this brevity." And the book does fly along at a fairly clipped pace, in a very dialogue-heavy manner, although the investigation and procedural elements often take a back seat to character interactions.

It's interesting to read words the author gave to one character that "We lead container lives nowadays, bound up in our own concerns. It doesn't make for neighborliness." Those words feel even truer today than in 1991, when thanks to technology, we likely know more about some distant celebrity than we do the people on our own street, and people are glued to cellphones even when out "socializing" with others.

[Talia Orr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to stay interested...

The story seems all over the place. The beginning doesn't fit all the way with the story. Not enough back story of the Lily-white boys to get a feel for them. The characters were bland and boring. The story cuts off and changes in the middle of a chapter and it didn't make sense, should've been a new chapter in the middle of chapters. The whole thing just didn't flow of make much sense to me.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two twins are found dead in a van. As DCI Webb and his team unravel the mystery, we also learn about some of the people involved.
Well-written.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good story from Anthea Fraser gripping and convincing.