"harryagain" wrote in message
...
Reading one of SWMBO's crime novels.

The victim is murdered by cutting a car brake line.
Though it was a pre dual circuit car I reckon I would know the instant I
wnet to start the engine there was a fault as I always put my foot on the
brake. Even without that, there are few circumstance wher nor having a
foot brake would kill you.
I can't think of a single way to sabotage a car to guarantee death short
of explosives.

Yes, this does tend to assume that the driver manages to get from his semi
in Guildford to a fast winding unfenced downhill road in the French Alps
without using his brakes and noticing that something is amiss.

I think the brake line versus explosives scenario is neccessary in book
plots because it's (relatively) undetectable, and invariably successful
unless it's the car of the "hero", in which case the car is totalled but he
survives. If the car and driver are blown to smithereens with half a ton of
fertiliser in the boot, I don't think it would take the Police/life
insurers/MI5 bosses long to figure out that foul play was afoot.