BARRY TURNER

THE BELTING INHERITANCE by Julian Symons

(British Library, €15) THE return of the prodigal, unwelcomed by all except a doting parent, is a familiar theme in crime fiction and here, the elder son, long assumed dead, reappears to claim the lion’s share of the family inheritance.

Is David Wainwright the genuine article or, as his two brothers believe, an imposter who has acquired insider knowledge of those he claims to be his nearest and dearest?

The story is told by a young teenager adopted by the Wainwrights. With an inquiring mind and strong intelligence, Christopher Barrington sets out to discover the truth. A murder in the household deepens the mystery, as do hints from the police that there is more at stake than a disputed inheritance. One of the finest crime writers of the Fifties, Symons has an eye for social quirks that add to the tension.

THE SINGING MASONS by Francis Vivian

(Dean Street, €12.40) WHEN a notorious lothario, swindler and all-round nasty piece of work is found dead at the bottom of a disused well, there is no one to mourn him — but many who would have been happy to help him on his way.

It is up to Inspector Knollis to delve into the secrets of a close-knit rural community to find motive and opportunity.

Central to a convoluted, yet strictly logical, plot is the not so gentle art of beekeeping. It is a swarm that leads to the discovery of the body and it is the bees that eventually betray the murderer.

The Singing Masons is in the middle of a run of ten novels featuring Knollis.

First published in the Fifties, they hold to old-fashioned values which might raise a smile, but for Vivian’s talent for transporting us effortlessly to another time and place.

THE LADY KILLER by Masako Togawa

(Vertigo, €11.19) AN OUTWARDLY respectable, home-loving husband finds consolation for a loveless marriage in a succession of one-night seductions. When death intrudes on this cycle of infidelity, the link between the victims and the mild-mannered philanderer puts him in the frame.

It is up to an elderly defence lawyer and his eager young leg man to unpick the evidence that has taken their client to the steps of the gallows.

This novel relies less on the nature of crime than on culture shock.

While the mystery of identity is not hard to fathom, the fascination is in exploring the underside of downtown Tokyo with its distinctive code of probity and justice.

Togawa was a cabaret artist who turned to crime fiction in the Sixties. Long established in Japan, her books have benefited from sensitive translation to enjoy a well-deserved second life.