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INGRID LANGLEY

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Full Name: Ingrid Langley
Nationality: British
Organization: MI5
Occupation Agent

Creator: Margaret Duffy
Time Span: 1987 - 2021

ABOUT THE SERIES

Ingrid Langley is a some-time agent for MI-5.

Though she was young when she and Patrick Gillard married, Langley was certain it would be forever. It lasted a few years before she, angered beyond her belief at a husband who had the audacity of being right all the time, threw him out. Surprisingly, he stayed out.

A civil divorce followed. A short time passed. Langley remarried to a less-perfect man. A year passed. Life was good. Perhaps a bit dull but good. Then her second husband got involved in something and had to turn to the one man he trusted, her first husband. The meeting turned violent when it was attacked by the trouble makers and her second was killed, possibly protecting the first.

Now that she was back in his life, albeit for unpleasant reasons, Langley is offered a job by MI-5. A man and a woman travelling as a couple are far less obvious than a man alone. To better provide cover for her ex, she is asked to pretend to be still with him.

And thus starts an interesting series of spy and mystery adventures starring Ingrid Langley as the principal character and her first and third husband, Patrick Gillard, as her companion. Though the spy in the series is really Gillard, the tales are told from Langley's perspective.

The first six books in the series were written from 1987 to 1993 and had espionage as their primary plot lines. A nine-year hiatus from the series took place before the pair returned in a new adventure in 2002. The returning couple were no longer involved with MI-5 and the series took on a far more mystery bent than spy story, although some do have elements of the past coming back on occasion.

BOOKS

Number of Books:23
First Appearance:1987
Last Appearance:2021

1 A Murder Of Crows A Murder Of Crows
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1987

When her second husband was murdered while visiting her first, Ingrid Langley doesn't know what to believe especially as she knows her first was an agent for MI-5 and the rumors are her second was involved in something messy.

2 Death Of A Raven Death Of A Raven
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1988

Top engineers from England, working a new missile control technology, are gathered in a luxurious vacation retreat in Canada for safety purposes. Ingrid and Peter are ordered to join them as someone is staging accidents which are getting more deadly.

3 Brass Eagle Brass Eagle
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1989

England is losing some of its best scientists to suicide. One shoots himself. Another uses carbon monoxide. Yet another slashes his wrists. Ingrid and Peter have the job of finding if there is something else to blame.

4 Who Killed Cock Robin Who Killed Cock Robin
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1990

The "Robin" is a fellow agent and his death is not considered an accident by Ingrid Langley and her husband but is the killer an agent of the IRA, a different terrorist group, or someone more mundane.

5 Rook-Shoot Rook-Shoot
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1991

Forced to take an indefinite leave, Ingrid and Gillard accept an invitation from Gillard's brother to investigate a series of strange "accidents" at an outdoor survivalist course which are threatening to destroy the brother's livelihood, if not his life.

6 Gallows Bird Gallows Bird
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 1993

When Patrick resigned from MI-5, Ingrid decided she too was through. Then there comes evidence that their now former boss, said to be recovery from the flu, is really being help against his will and kept drugged for unknown reasons.

7 Hanging Matter Hanging Matter
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2002

Gillard, now working at a think tank, is suddenly arrested and charged with a murder that took place years before. Ingrid Langley gets on the case and finds that the motives behind the arrest are political and the goal is the top position.

8 Dead Trouble Dead Trouble
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2004

Needing the advice from a pathologist for her latest book, Ingrid Langley went to one of the best. The next day he is found murdered on one of his tables. Getting into the case, Langley finds far too many suspects, from the many criminals he helped put away to his own family members.

9 So Horrible A Place So Horrible A Place
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2005

Gillard finds a new, temporary job as technical advisor to a movie being made about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. When the lead actor's stand-in is killed, Ingrid and Peter get on the case to find if it is the actor who is the real target or if even it is the movie itself.

10 Tainted Ground Tainted Ground
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2006

As a plan to increase police recruitment, Gillard is hired by Scotland Yard. Almost immediately there are three brutal murders in his own neighborhood. To complicate matters, Gillard's new rank is higher than his best friend.

11 Cobweb Cobweb
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2007

The killing of a DCI is feared to be connected to the case he was working on, an investigation of a noted member of Parliament. As Ingrid and Peter start looking into it, they fear that another policeman is pushing hard enough to get herself killed.

12 Blood Substitute Blood Substitute
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2008

Now working for an organization called SOCA, Ingrid and Peter are told to find out why a policeman was horribly murdered and what the initials R.K. carved on his corpse means.

13 Souvenirs Of Murder Souvenirs Of Murder
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2009

When Gillard, trying to catch a Eastern European master criminal, is drugged and framed for several violent deaths, Ingrid Langley must prove him innocent, even though she has just given birth.

14 Corpse In Waiting Corpse In Waiting
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2010

While vacationing in Bath, Ingrid becomes a tad jealous when Peter agrees to help an old flame house hunt. Tagging along to watch over them, she finds a house she especially likes herself, except for the corpse hiding in the closet.

15 Rat Poison Rat Poison
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2011

Still in Bath, Ingrid and Peter are asked to investigate a spate of shootings that are likely to be caused by a London crime lord's decision to move into that city and take over. The two find that the gang always seems one step ahead of them.

16 Stealth Stealth
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2012

Clement Hamlyn is an author of especially brutal crime novels that might be truer than the readers believe. When Ingrid Langley, along with her husband, meet with the man, they cannot help but feel someone is watching them.

17 Dark Side Dark Side
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2013

Someone takes shots at Ingrid and Patrick. Are they getting too close to someone or are they victims of a vendetta against someone else? Their friend, Inspector Cooper, is found unconscious next to the body of a man he put away years ago, recently released.

18 Ashes To Ashes Ashes To Ashes
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2015

Patrick Gillard’s father wants Patrick and Ingrid's help when a friend of his becomes convinced it was not her husband who was recently cremated.
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19 Dust To Dust Dust To Dust
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2016

A senior NCA official is murdered. Worse, he is dispatched inside his extremely secure castle.
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20 Murders.com Murders.com
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2017

"Patrick Gillard has taken on a new role as the NCA’s officer within Avon and Somerset Police’s Regional Organised Crime Unit, much to his wife and working partner Ingrid Langley’s relief. It may seem like a safe desk job, but Ingrid’s relief is short-lived when she finds the head of the Metropolitan Police’s specialist undercover unit, F9, Commander Rolt, barely alive in a field in Somerset. Unsurprisingly, Patrick is soon pulled back into frontline action. And when further, gruesome discoveries are made, Patrick and Ingrid are plunged into danger yet again in the hunt for one of the Met’s most-wanted criminals."
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21 Stone Cold, Stone Dead Stone Cold, Stone Dead
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2018

"Nicholas Haldane was dead, but he wouldn’t lie down. And now Julian Hardy, the man who hired him in a bid to destroy Richard Daws, a top official in the National Crime Agency, is out of prison and has changed his surname to Mannering. Patrick Gillard, working for the agency but within the Avon and Somerset force with his wife Ingrid Langley, receives a request from MI5, for whom he used to work, to investigate Mannering. They are then called in when his cleaner makes a shocking discovery. Meanwhile, an enigmatic couple calling themselves Simon and Natasha Graves turn up in the village, intent on pestering Patrick’s recently widowed mother. Could there be a connection to Mannering?"
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22 Gillard's Sting Gillard's Sting
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2020

"Patrick Gillard is drawn out of retirement when his former NCA boss, Commander Michael Greenway, appears on his doorstep. John Brinkley, a newly retired commander of the Metropolitan Police, has gone missing, and Greenway wants Patrick to find him."
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23 The Not Quite Perfect Murderer The Not Quite Perfect Murderer
Written by Margaret Duffy
Copyright: 2021

"Twelve-year-old Damien ‘Spike’ Baker is a young voyeur who loves to climb up trees, houses and walls . . . and look in people’s windows. But when he climbs up some rampant ivy on a large mansion and peers through one of its windows, he makes a deadly mistake. It seems that Damien has looked in one window too many . . . What did he see? Detective Chief Inspector James Carrick of Bath CID is dealing with a raid on a jeweller’s shop, and soon has a broken leg and the discovery of Damien’s body on a building site near the River Avon to contend with. Fortunately his old colleague, Patrick Gillard, now retired from the National Crime Agency, offers to assist with the investigation. Can Patrick and his wife and working partner, Ingrid Langley, catch a criminal heavyweight intent on leaving a trail of death and destruction in the city?"
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MY COMMENTS

I'm no stranger to British mysteries and certainly am not a novice when it comes to British spy novels. But the first in this series had me confused and scratching my head on more than one occasion. Then I realized that while they were by no means my first, this book was Ms. Duffy's first. But through the disjointed bumps, the delightful Ingrid Langley started to shine through, especially towards the end, keeping me reading the series passed the first book. Her husband was, and is, a bit of a stuffed shirt and still too right-all-the-time but she makes up for it.

GRADE

My Grade: B

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