"No Accident" by Robert Crouch

A well-written whodunnit murder mystery which manages to be original while conforming to the genre.

Kent Fisher is everything you would expect the protagonist of a murder mystery to be. He has an antagonistic past relationship with the chief suspect, he has a colourful history and traumatic personal life, he fails to play by the rules (which gets him suspended, of course!), he has a glamorous (though not stupid) side-kick, he cracks not-very-good jokes, he picks up on inconsequential details and his obsession with the case leads to a situation where he could lose everything. But, uniquely in my experience, he is an Environmental Health Officer who normally checks the hygiene standards of restaurants (and this corner of East Sussex appears to specialise in filthy kitchens) but on this occasion is called to investigate what appears to be a fatal work accident. 

Which means, of course, no forensic team taking the guesswork out of the investigation and ruining the fun.

It's an energetic and convoluted classic of the genre. It started sedately, with some original settings, convincingly described, and the careful development of some fascinating characters. Around the half-way mark, the pace picks up and the revelations and twists start to pour in. In the final quarter, the hunt for the killer becomes a thrilling chase with heavily built henchmen, secret passages and guns. 

I wasn't entirely convinced by the final solution to the crime and there were perhaps too many characters (next time I'll write a list). But who could fail to be entertained by a story that has everyone and everything including a cabinet minister, a sleazy casino owner, a Wild West theme park, a family that dates to before the Conquest, a stately home turned into a hotel, an animal rescue centre and a Westie named Columbo? It even included advice on how to clean a microwave oven: “Half fill a jug of water and add a few drops of lemon juice. Two to three minutes on full power and the steam will lift the grease." (Ch 54)

This was a well-written page-turner that took me for a fun romp across the South Downs. 

Selected quotes:

• “Still trying to be the comedian instead of the joke" (Ch 3)
• "He’s not a bad cook for a Scenes of Crime Officer. When he retired three years ago his cooking was as dire as his DIY skills. For someone who could piece together a crime scene from fragments and minute traces, he couldn’t assemble a cupboard from a flat pack." (Ch 14)
• "She never wore makeup, rarely smiled, and preferred to live in the past, which I suppose you would if you taught history." (Ch 16)
• "It’s difficult to imagine this clandestine world coexisting with the peaceful one I inhabit. In my world, the biggest crime, ... is to build social housing in villages." (Ch 46)
• “Miss McNamara will see you in her suite, Mr Fisher. She wishes to know if your visit is social or antisocial.” (Ch 51)
• "Mike once did an astronomy course there and was upset when they didn’t award stars for good work." (Ch 55)

September 2024

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"When the Dead Speak" by Sheila Bugler

Eastbourne pier, a location in this whodunnit

A murder mystery that ticks all the boxes.

A young woman is found dead on the altar of St Mary's church in a scene that parallels an unsolved murder from sixty years previously. Freelance journalist Dee sets out to investigate but her police detective boyfriend Ed is off the case because his now-dead uncle was accused of the earlier crime. Cue repeated lies and failures of communication between the two of them as Ed goes maverick to try to clear his uncle's name and Dee has trust issues. Characters include sleazy hoteliers, dying doctors and self-righteous Christians. In the end, after the principal ladies encounter life-threatening violence, the convoluted plot is unravelled.

It was a quick, easy read. I found it a little difficult to keep on top of who was who among the suspects, especially as there were two sets, from the past and from the present. The narrative was regularly broken by flashbacks using the device of diary entries from the 1960s which lacked verisimilitude; it just didn't sound like a diary. On the other hand, the use of real places in and around Eastbourne (the Hydro hotel, the pier, St Mary's Church, the Lamb Inn, Seasons cafe at the Harbour) added credibility for someone like myself, who lives there. 

I think my biggest problem lay with Dee and Ed's relationship. They repeatedly failed to communicate either by omission or the use of falsehoods. This created lots and lots of conflict but it seemed artificial. They fell out with monotonous regularity, as if they sensed when the plot needed another twist to maintain the tension. Ed, who had been quite a believable character in the first of this series, I Could Be You, was reduced to a stereotypical male while Dee was eternally ready to see the worst in him while giving herself a blanket pardon for the same sins. His obstinacy was her strength of character ("if other people felt differently that was their problem, not hers"; Ch 15). She made everything about her, from the fact that her neighbour had other friends and might move away from the substandard caravan she rented from her to the fact that her cousin was having an affair; Dee was always the centre of her youniverse.

But the pacing was spot on, with the turning points coming at all the right places, the book was easy to read and the pages quick to be turned.

Selected quotes:

• "Unlike her husband, who was flashy to the point of trashy, everything about Karen's appearance seemed designed to make her as invisible as possible." (Ch 12)

August 2024; 348 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

 

"Triple Tease" by Tony Flood

This is a fast-paced novel. It uses many short paragraphs which often contain only one or two sentences.The short chapters average four pages. This made it very easy to read.

It is also straightforward about the characters and their motivations. This is not an author who believes in 'show don't tell'. Here is his protagonist's self-assessment of her character: "For all my outward display of confidence, I'm riddled with doubt. There are hundreds of insecurities behind my smile. It's almost as if I've got two different personalities." (Ch 3)

At the start, it seemed to be a thriller about vigilante justice but the hero of this section, Katrina, disappears when the book morphed into a police procedural murder mystery. She bounces back in at the end as a sort of deus ex machina to solve the plot. 

I say 'police procedural' but the police seemed to honour the procedure more in the breach than in the observance. The lead detective uses a civilian as an agent provocateur and conspires to cover up a murder. He also makes a verbal slip which suggests he knows the identity of the main murderer so perhaps he is corrupt as well as indifferent to the rules.

The portrayal of misogyny within the CID as evidenced, inter alia, by puerile penis-jokes was probably accurate. Unfortunately, the sexism spilled over into the rest of the book. The attitudes to women in display through most of this novel were old-fashioned to say the least. The wife of the chief copper is a nagging shrew with a sporadic Scottish accent. Other women are victims or sex-workers. There was a focus on their looks: they were either drop-dead gorgeous or grotesque. Katrina, whose physical assets were repeatedly extolled, has her degree and post-graduate study dismissed as "basic qualifications". I found this problematic, especially when the principal crimes involved sex-based violence towards women.

There is an interesting moment of meta-fiction (or was it a commercial break?) when the author appears as a character. 

There is an audacious twist at the end.

March 2024; 282 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

I Could Be You" by Sheila Bugler

 A murder mystery set in my home town of Eastbourne. When Dee, a retired journalist, discovers the body of a woman, killed in a hit and run, she thinks it is her next-door neighbour and begins to investigate. But nothing is quite what it seems.

Typical of the genre. Structured with repeated flashbacks which made such puzzles as were posed even easier to guess. I found it a little difficult to believe in the credibility and motivations of some of the characters. Except for the knight in shining armour policeman, most of the male characters were either wicked or useless or both.

Selected quotes:

• "If my life was a high-school rom com, Shane would be the guy I ended up with. The jock with a heart clever enough to see through the artifice of the shallow world we live in." (Ch 3)
• "Louise's husband was a pilot ... 'He's good ... Has his ups and downs'" (Ch 5) I'm not sure if that was meant to be a joke.

October 2022; 376 pages

There are, so far, three sequels.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God