Details
-
Title
Dying Voices
-
Author
Wilson, Laura
-
Binding
Paperback
-
Edition
First Printing
-
Condition
Used - Good
-
Pages
320
-
Volumes
1
-
Language
ENG
-
Publisher
Bantam, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
-
Date
2001-04-03 Spine Wear. See our T
-
Bookseller's Inventory #
229PS2G_d7d541d8-a209-4
-
ISBN
9780553582826 / 0553582828
-
Weight
0.33 lbs (0.15 kg)
-
Dimensions
6.87 x 4.18 x 0.89 in (17.45 x 10.62 x 2.26 cm)
-
Library of Congress subjects
Mothers and daughters, Mystery fiction
-
Library of Congress Catalog Number
2002555547
-
Dewey Decimal Code
FIC
About EstateBooks Texas, United States
Biblio member since 2019
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Estate Books is pleased to offer the collection of the late Robert A. Warden, who collected over 18,000 books, many preserved in as new condition. Mr. Warden collected a variety of fiction and non-fiction works, but most often was found reading a good mystery.
Terms of Sale:
All books we offer have been cleaned and individually inspected for quality.
The following describes the types of wear often noticed on used books:
Cover Wear
Cover Chips/Abrasions - At fine level or below, may indicate 1-2 chips of about 2mm on the edge of the cover. At very good level, may indicate several chips/abrasions along the edge of the cover or 1-2 chips in the body of the cover. There may be also light indentations in the cover.
Cover Crease - At fine level or below, may indicate a dust jacket is not flush against the book, 1-2 barely perceptible crimps on the inside flap of the dust jacket, or small crimps following the curve of the spine. At very good level or below, may indicate 1-2 creases in the cover less than 1/2in from the edge of the book. At good level or below, may indicate larger or multiple creases or crimps on the cover.
Cover Tear - At good level, may indicate a tear or cut up to 1/2in from the edge of the cover. At acceptable level, may indicate a larger tear as long as the cover is substantially intact.
Cover Discoloration - At fine level, may indicate barely perceptible residual price label adhesive. At very good level or below, may indicate the cover is discolored due to sunlight/aging, mild staining, or residual label adhesive.
Cover Scratches - At fine level or below, indicates barely perceptible scratches in the dust jacket or cover. At very good level or below, may indicate a small number of visible scratches or more generally scratched appearance.
Cover Rubbing - At fine level or below, indicates rubbing of the dust jacket or cover resulting in a "dusty" or slightly discolored appearance, particularly near the back cover board seam.
Cover Peeling - At very good level or below, indicates the edge of the cover laminate is peeling, making the laminate visible with a tape-like appearance.
Edge/Spine Wear
Spine Wear - At very good level or below, indicates a crease on the spine suggesting the book has been read. At good level or below, this may indicate a curvature to the spine, suggesting the book has been left open for some time.
Page Wear
Page Crimping - At very good level or below, indicates a small number of pages may have been crimped and then flattened. At good level or below, an area up to 1/4in from the edge of some pages may be crimped, abraded, or dog-eared.
Page Discoloration - At very good level or below, indicates the edge of some pages may be discolored from sunlight/aging or small stains. At good level, the inside cover pages may have small stains. At acceptable level, content pages may have stains around the page edges.
Pages Cut - At good level or below, indicates an area up to 1/8in from the edge of some pages may be cut or torn, provided all of the text and content is still readable.
Pages Uncut - At very good level or below, indicates some pages may have not been cleanly cut by the publisher.
Used Markings
Remainder Marking - At condition level fine or below, there may be a black or red mark on the edge of the pages indicating it is used. At condition level very good or below, there may be a marking on the inside or rear cover barcode.
Store Marking - At condition level very good or below, this may indicate a hand-written price on the inside cover. At condition level good or below, this may indicate a stamp on the inside cover or edge of the pages indicating it was purchased form a used book store. There may be a price tag on the rear cover which is difficult to remove without damaging the cover.
Library Markings - At condition level good or below, this may indicate the book has stamps or stickers on the outside and/or inside cover and/or page edges, indicating the book was formerly property of a school or public library. The cover may be partially or fully laminated. There may be a card holder attached to record check-out records.
Owner Markings - At condition level good or below, indicates a prior owner may have written their name or brief note on the inside cover. In rare cases, the owner may have laminated the book.
Page Writing - At acceptable level, indicates writing or highlighting on the content pages.
Dust Jacket Notes
No Jacket - At condition level very good or below, indicates a hardcover book missing its dust jacket.
Dust Jacket Damage - At condition level very good or below, indicates a torn or otherwise damaged dust jacket, which would otherwise result in a reduced condition grade. The dust jacket is provided for completeness and may be discarded by the purchaser.
Irrespective of wear, we expect each book sold to be pleasant to read.
Autographed books have been personally signed by the author.
Return Policy
We offer a 30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item is lost or arrives damaged or is not as described. If you wish to return an item for any other reason (such as a duplicate gift) we offer a refund of the purchase price less shipping and site fees for up to 7 days after delivery, provided the item is preserved in the same condition in which it was received.
Shipping Policy
Items are sent via the USPS. Domestic standard shipping is Media Mail, Expedited is Priority Mail or First Class Mail (depending on weight), and Express is Priority Mail Express. International shipping is Priority Mail International. If you prefer a particular alternative shipping option please contact us and we will work with you to meet your preferences.
Browse books from EstateBooks
Summary
Deadly legacy...It was a media circus that only the British tabloids can create: the kidnapping of beautiful Susan Blackstock by a radical group -- and the refusal of her multimillionaire husband to pay the 10-million-pound ransom. Eight-year-old Dodie Blackstock never saw her mother again. Now twenty-nine, Dodie has struggled for two decades to step out from the shadows of past tragedy and her father's wealth. But a visit from two policemen changes everything. They bring the news she has waited for years to hear, yet it is completely unexpected. Susan Blackstock's body has finally been found -- and she has been dead only forty-eight hours.Dodie's return to the family estate brings more confusion than answers. There she confronts a legacy of secrets and lies that shakes her trust in everyone she knows. And trust becomes a life-or-death issue, as threatening messages appear on her doorstep ... and death touches those Dodie loves most.From the Paperback edition.
Excerpt
My name is Dodie Blackstock. Well, it's supposed to be Dorothy, but I hate it. And yes, it's those Blackstocks. Wolf Blackstock was my father. I'm the one who inherited all the money. My mother was his third wife. The one who was kidnapped.
I hate telling people. Sometimes — no, often — I lie. Because when they ask if I'm related, they expect me to say something like, "No, but I wish I had his money," and then we can talk about the kidnap and how weird that they never found her body, and that leads us on to the summer of 1976 and how hot it was. If you're about my age — I'm twenty-nine — I already know it was your best school holiday ever and that you went to the open-air pool every day and came back in the evening feeling as if the sun was inside you.
If I do tell the truth, I usually regret it. Because if you tell someone that your father was Wolf Blackstock and your mother was murdered by her kidnappers, you might just as well add, "And by the way, I'm seriously screwed up," because that'll be what they're thinking. I've had every sort of reaction, from total disbelief to a level of sympathy where they're almost ready to commit suicide on my behalf, and they've only known me five minutes. But the worst thing is the nice people, the ones who just say, "God, that must have been terrible." I just say, "Yeah, well..." and talk about something else. But it's always uncomfortable. It's as if people feel guilty because they asked or they'd made a joke about it or something. And because they're fascinated by the money, of course.
People used to ask all the time. I used to think about handing out flyers with my life story printed on them to save time. Father rich; mother kidnapped, body never found; university; the reason I actually work for a living instead of designing my own range of swimwear or prancing about in art galleries or whatever rich girls are supposed to do that passes for a job. Anyway, the life-story thing dropped off a bit because people were getting younger — well, they weren't, but you know what I mean. But last year, when my father died, it was all raked up in the obituaries and magazine articles and one of those TV programmes, so now everyone knows about it all over again.
I was eight when Mum was kidnapped. January 1976. The kidnappers wanted ten million pounds, but my father wouldn't pay. They dropped it to nine million, and then to eight million three months later, then seven, then two months after that they dropped it to six, before he agreed to part with a penny. You know the Pathé News videos they sell, one tape for each year? Well, if you get the one for 1976 you can see what happened. You'll find it in June, after the bit about the end of the Cod War. There's a man with fuzzy sideburns and a drip-dry shirt with a long pointy collar, crouching in some grass in front of a bush. The camera's a bit wobbly, and sometimes you catch sight of a bit of thatched roof poking up behind him.
At ten o'clock this evening, armed police stormed the cottage where kidnappers were said to be holding Susan Blackstock, wife of multi-millionaire property tycoon Wolf Blackstock, who was snatched from her car in January this year. Mr. Blackstock, one of the richest men in Britain, was asked for ten million pounds in exchange for the safe return of his wife. The kidnappers, who are thought to be politically motivated, have not yet received any money. In a covert operation, police marksmen surrounded this quiet Suffolk cottage but when they approached the house, the kidnappers fired on them. The police responded, and in the crossfire two policemen were injured and one man, thought to be the leader of the group, was killed. One of the officers, PC Timothy Corrigan, has subsequently died in hospital. Susan Blackstock was not in the house, and no traces of her have so far been found.
Then a voice-over will tell you that police arrested the third member of the gang at a house in Cricklewood, where items of women's clothing were discovered, but that despite a nationwide search, my mother's body was never found. Then it goes on to talk about record traffic jams to British coastal resorts and Dennis Howell being the Minister for Drought.
After that, half the journalists in the country must have descended on that village in Suffolk. One of the locals said it was like Gunfight at the OK Corral and a woman said she'd rung the police station when she heard the gunfire, and the sergeant said not to worry because the police were the ones doing the shooting. The other half of the journalists were doorstepping us, or that's what it felt like. We were down at Camoys Hall. That was my father's country house, which was where he lived most of the time and where I lived when I wasn't at school. It's got a great circle of gravel in front of it, made when the house was built so that carriages could turn round. I remember looking down at it from a top-floor window and not being able to see one speck of gravel, only the tops of journalists' heads. I spat, but nobody looked up.
Frankly, it would have been child's play to kidnap Mum from Camoys Hall, but she was taken from her car in London. My father wouldn't have dogs or guards or anything because he said he wouldn't be made a prisoner in his own house, so there were ordinary farm gates at the end of the driveway instead of electric ones. There was a notice saying PRIVATE PROPERTY, but the gates were usually open and anyone could have driven through them. Those journalists must have thought they'd died and gone to heaven, except that my father refused to talk to them, and they waited in front of the house every single day for almost three weeks while the search for Mum's body was going on. The reporters had vans, lighting, everything. By the end, there were blankets and even deckchairs. Most of the men had sunhats, and some of the women were lying on the brown grass of the front lawn with their tops rolled up, sunbathing. One of the newspapers ran a picture of them sitting around a picnic, playing cards. When they finally went, Joan, our housekeeper — actually she was a bit more than that, but I don't want to go into it now — and I tiptoed out of the front door to have a look and by the state of the grounds you'd have thought there'd been a garden party. Not a Buckingham Palace one, though. The following spring, our cook cut open one of the cabbages from the kitchen garden and found a used condom inside it.
Media reviews
"...combines strong characterizations and fluid prose Wilson's quick humor and snappy, British dialogue will entertain."
-- Publishers Weekly
"[Wilson] has an ear for dialogue and a gift for creating believable characters. This is real class."
-- The Sunday Telegraph (London)
"A narrative relayed in the perfect pitch of a writer with pedigree goods to deliver."
-- The Literary Review (London)
Don't miss the "superb ... exciting debut" (The Times of London) of Laura Wilson:
A Little Death
"A web of desire, violence and lost opportunity ... Masterfully captures the different voices of the three protagonists, and weaves their stories together."
-- The Times (London)
Available from Bantam Books
