Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Detective

Detective
Detective
Author: Arthur Hailey
Hours before he is due to set off on a long-delayed and much-deserved vacation with his wife and son, Det.-Sgt. Malcolm Ainslie takes a phone call he would have been better off ignoring. The caller is the chaplain at Florida State Prison, delivering a message from Elroy Doil, the serial murderer Ainslie helped put on the prison's death row. On t...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780517700259
ISBN-10: 0517700255
Publication Date: 7/1/1997
Pages: 400
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 14

3.6 stars, based on 14 ratings
Publisher: Crown
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Detective on + 52 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
a good read. pace is good and writing style is easy to follow. enjoy. i did.
punkinema avatar reviewed Detective on + 305 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Great book that follows a gruesome murder with surprising side effects to the Miami Police Department. Arthur Hailey is a great writer; develops characters well. Great read.
theinfamousj avatar reviewed Detective on + 29 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Once upon a time, I bought a bunch of books on eBay. They promised to send me a box filled with many different titles, and so they did. One of those titles was Detective by Arthur Hailey.

This is the story of a police detective named Malcolm Ainslie who lives and works in Florida. It follows - roughly - the investigation that is launched when a death row inmate confesses to actually having committed a lot more murders. The police had long suspected this, but they hadn't actually been able to hang the murders on Doil (that's the inmate).

Oh, and did I mention that Ainslie is a former priest-turned-detective?

This book takes you inside the heart and mind of a Florida detective. You encounter a lot of driving and/or sitting in the car, computers, triplicate forms, sexual advances, sexual retreats, sexual reminiscences, spouses being upset that work is a top priority, obnoxious rich people, bureaucracy, politics, and real life forensics that is less than conclusive, tape recorders (remember those?), double crossing, and flashbacks.

Between this book and Line of Duty, I feel that I have been given a real look inside the true world of police-work.

{Three star alt-text is, "I liked it." And I did.}
Read All 15 Book Reviews of "Detective"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

maggieblue avatar reviewed Detective on + 37 more book reviews
\"Detective\" is a good, thick book by Arthur Hailey - he knows how to spin a page-turning thriller of suspense. Sergeant Ainslie is called by a man on Death Row in Miami, requesting that Ainslie hear his convession. Ainslie is a former Catholic Priest. The reader doesn\'t know what to expect in this confession as the man of Death row is suspect of a series of grisly murders.
reviewed Detective on
A fast read thriller from Arthur Hailey.
reviewed Detective on + 3 more book reviews
Interesting, hard to put down
funhorses avatar reviewed Detective on + 21 more book reviews
was a good mystery...enjoyed reading
reviewed Detective on + 193 more book reviews
A very good story told with style. A paradox that at times you felt ready for it to end yet the tale kept your interest making it was almost impossible to lay down.


Genres: