The Killing Floor

P Division #9

by Peter Turnbull

In a story set in the tough, gritty streets of Glasgow, the men and women of P Division must solve the mystery of a long-dead corpse that was discovered without head or hands

Genres: Mystery

295 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Peter Turnbull is the author of nineteen previous novels and numerous works of short fiction. He worked for many years as a social worker in Glasgow before returning to his native Yorkshire.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is just something about this series that really appeals to me. It could be that it is set in gritty Glasgow, Scotland. It could be the ensemble nature of the story. It could be the fact that none of the cops are completely screwed up, with a horrible back story, and an attitude problem. It is the story of real cops and real detectives working together to solve a murder.

In this story, it is a particularly vicious murder and a complex story. I will be sorry to read the next book as it is the last in the series.

[JoAnn Ainsworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this difficult to read. I’d read a few pages and put it down. The only reason I persisted to the end is that my friend considers this novel “one of the BEST murder/mystery thriller books I've ever read”. One of us is right.

[Janette Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

An understandable error by a motorist leads to the discovery of a decomposed headless and handless corpse in the garden of a house in one of Glasgow's more prestigious suburbs. For Glasgow's P Division, the first task is to identify the body - an identification which reveals a person with a talent for making enemies.[return]Then there is another killing - a murderous stabbing in an east end housing scheme and the police investigation takes on an added urgency. The whiff of corruption is in the air, and soon they are unravelling a thirty-year-old fraud of massive proportions which, if made public, would shake the city to its very foundations. 9th book in series

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a little difficult to get into at first, but it was well worth it. I think I found it tough as I didn't know the main characters, however, they were explained and grew as the story progressed. An interesting Brit police procedural.

[Karen Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mystery dealing with Glasgow's P squad, detailing their investigation into the body of a woman whose head and hands were removed before disposing of her in the garden of a house long unsold.

The story is a solid police procedural, detailing the case from the start of the discovery of the body through the quirk of an auto accident. This is part of a series, one that also looks at the private lives of the officers in vignettes that are dropped into the main story of the investigation.

Great story, but I did have a little trouble keeping track of the main characters investigating the crime, perhaps my fault for coming in cold to the series. It held my interest to the very end, though, and I highly recommend it to mystery buffs especially with the different local of Scotland.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of several mysteries I picked up from local Little Free Libraries to send to a woman recovering from neck surgery. She apparently feels well stocked with the books I have already provided, so I was going through the stack to see what I should do with them. This book is set in Glasgow and I was in the mood for a British procedural and decided to give it a try.

Glasgow has a flavor all its own, so this was not exactly a British procedural, because the slang and the class divide and the financial realities are all unique to the setting. And most of the British procedurals I read are written by women, which I think was responsible for some of the difference in tone in this book. I found the pacing compelling (I read it almost non-stop) and the action from discovery of the body to the last page takes place in about 3 days. It was really more of a "can they catch him?" than a "whodunit". The victim was thoroughly unsympathetic despite the horrific nature of the crime and the perpetrator is one of the most soulless killers I have ever encountered in mystery fiction, and all too believable. But there was something about the style that made it hard for me to connect to any of the investigative team -- it was somehow very detached, like a written transcript of a movie voice over, "the man" did this and "the woman" did that for several paragraphs before providing the info on the character being discussed. That was how almost all characters were introduced and sometimes even how a new section was introduced when it involved a known character. I was hoping to discover a new series that I would enjoy picking up from time to time, but I am not sure that I did.

[Teena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little slow at first but a decent mystery.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A library find. April 2026.
Gritty.
Interesting.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Due to an accident, a headless, handless body is discovered. Over the course of the next few days, the Glasgow P Division identified the body, located the perpetrators, and brought some to justice. Plenty of gritty police work with some luck ensnared the wrongdoers.

[Race Bannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curious book. Straightforward police procedural,
nothing clever about it. Seems that the police
conveniently have everything fall into their
lap.
Not Recommended.