Iconic detective for our times

THE TEACHER by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus €28, 384pp)

IRASCIBLE, devoid of empathy and idiosyncratic to the point of oddness, DS George Cross is an unforgettable character and a brilliant detective.

In this, his sixth outing, he proves it once again as he investigates the death of a reclusive man who appears to have fallen down the stairs and broken his neck. An open and shut case apparently — apart from the stab wound. Who killed Alistair Moreton in his home and why?

There are plenty of suspects: the neighbours whose lives Moreton made a misery; the drug dealers who may have moved in with him; the former pupils at the boarding school where he taught.

Every generation has its iconic detective — Holmes, Poirot and Morse — but Cross is emerging as the one for now. Treasure him.

THE MYSTERY GUEST by Nita Prose (HarperCollins €13.99, 336pp)

A SECOND outing for the engaging and witty Molly Gray, head maid at the Regency Grand Hotel.

It centres on the death of a famous crime writer, who drops dead in front of an audience of mystery lovers in the hotel’s grand tea room — just as he is about to reveal an important secret.

Enter Molly and her protege, Lily. Together they begin to piece together the puzzle of how and why the writer — whom, it turns out, Molly knew as a child — died.

In spite of being little regarded by the police, or some of the hotel management, Molly rejects the hasty judgments that some are making and meticulously solves the mystery in a way Miss Marple would certainly have approved of. This is cosy crime at its very best — utterly delightful.

THE SEARCH PARTY by Hannah Richell (Simon & Schuster €16.99, 400pp)

THIS beautifully crafted mystery is not so much a ‘whodunit?’ as ‘who died’? But it has a moral at its heart that sets it apart from some other crime stories.

Architects Max and Annie Kingsley have given up the rat race in London with their 12-year-old adopted son, Kip, to set up a ‘glamping site’ in Cornwall. They have invited a group of old friends down to try out their paradise, including reality TV star Dominic Davies, his wife and three children, as well as laidback couple Jim and Suze Miller and their three children.

But the idyll quickly turns into a nightmare as a storm sweeps in and one of the children goes missing. As the wind batters the specially designed tents and wooden structures, so the group grows ever more fractious. None more so than the belligerent Dominic.

The moral is that there is always a price to fame, which comes vividly to life in this twisty tale.