August 1962. Brighton. Colin Crampton, crime correspondent of the Chronicle gets a tip-off about the owner of the seaside crazy golf course who has disappeared. To track him down, and get a scoop, Colin has to mix with the shadiest of Brighton's underworld.
This is a classic murder mystery with a wise-cracking hero; there is a lot of humour in it. The characters are nicely drawn and often lampooned and the period is nearly perfect (although the test card girl didn't appear until 1967).
It's great fun and a good, page-turning read. I think it bears comparison with the Charles Paris murder mysteries by Simon Brett such as The Cinderella Killer and A Decent Interval.
Selected quotes:
- "He’d been spreading his cement on both sides of the wall.” (C 2)
- "Shirley looked like a model and spoke like a trucker." (C 2)
- "Last night’s chip wrappings rustled along the gutters. Waves crashed and roared over the shingle. The air smelt like a fishmonger’s slab." (C 3)
- "The words on Darke’s business card said “property developer”. It was as though Hitler had handed out cards describing himself as a “painter and decorator". (C 3)
- "The Golden Kiss nightclub was exclusive in much the same way as Lewes Prison. Not many people got in there and those who did were mostly crooks." (C 5)
- "I couldn’t tell whether they were dancing the foxtrot or the rumba. He looked as though he was pushing a wheelbarrow to music." (C 5)
- "There was the kind of desperate light in his eyes that I associated with street-corner preachers and people trying to borrow money." (C 7)
A well-written light-hearted whodunnit. September 2021
The next two in the series are:
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