BARRY TURNER

OTHER PATHS TO GLORY

by Anthony Price

(Penguin Modern Classics £9.99, 288pp)

DeLVING into the battles of the Great War, military historian Paul Mitchell is visited by two strangers who want him to identify a fragment of a German trench map. That they are linked to British Intelligence soon becomes clear. But why do they need the information and why has another expert gone missing?

After an attempt is made on Mitchell’s life, the reluctant hero is persuaded to go undercover to discover why a patch of woodland on the somme has been thrust into prominence. Price is a dab hand at building suspense. The thrills are delivered by the page as Mitchell gets closer to the

truth, while finding he is a pawn in a much bigger game. The climax will take your breath away.

DATE WITH JUSTICE by Julia Chapman (Pan £9.99, 416pp)

THe Yorkshire Dales are alive with the sound of discord. As the leading light of the Dales Detective Agency, Delilah Metcalfe has the case of a lifetime on her hands as she fights a murder charge against her hot-tempered brother.

The victim is a planning official on the take. With his sheep farm under threat from a neighbouring landowner, Will Metcalfe has the motive and, as it turns out, the opportunity to dispose of a corrupt official.

Aided by her policeman partner, the appropriately named samson, Delilah soon finds her close-knit community harbours more than one suspected killer. Moving her story along at a cracking pace, Chapman has an enviable talent for sharing the ups

and downs of country life. Fans of The Archers will lap it up.

THE GREAT DECEIVER by Elly Griffiths (Quercus £22, 352pp)

IT UseD to be that no seaside holiday was complete without a summer show and resident magician, skilled at suspending disbelief. such was Brighton’s entertainment in the 1960s when a magic-maker known as ‘the great deceiver’ was the top attraction.

But not for long. When his assistant is found murdered, he heads the list of suspects. It takes another murder, also of a magician’s stage partner, to persuade the police that a serial killer is at large. Hot on the case is superintendent stephens.

elly Griffiths is brilliant at evoking the low life of popular entertainment, where fame and fortune remain enticingly out of reach. An engaging plot supported by sharp characterisation builds to high drama as the killer takes his final bow.