CLASSIC CRIME
BEAU DEATH by Peter Lovesey (Sphere £19.99) If eVerY senior policeman were like Peter diamond, we might sleep more easily.
a long- serving Bath CId officer with a dedication to truth and justice, his commitment is stretched when he is given a murder case that could be 200 years old.
the demolition of a derelict cottage reveals a skeleton dressed in the image of Beau Nash, notorious dandy and gambler, who put the city of Bath on the map.
Knowing that Nash came to a murky, if uncertain, end, diamond assumes that he can fill in the gaps in the story.
But while diamond’s painstaking delve into history falls short, it does give a lead to a more recent death, one that connects to influential citizens who gather to celebrate the memory of Beau Nash. a stranger to the latest technology, diamond relies on instinct and logic to solve a case that has all the ingredients of a first-rate mystery. Peter Lovesey rarely puts a foot wrong.
DEATH AT BREAKFAST by John Rhode (Collins Crime Club £8.99) a MeLodraMatIC cover image of a man choking over his breakfast suggests death by poison. and so it proves.
a lethal dose of nicotine has been administered. How, why and by whom are the questions for the police, who quickly fasten on to the victim’s half-sister and her brother as having a strong reason for wanting a troublesome relative out of the way.
But with circumstantial evidence overtaken by developments that count against an easy resolution, it falls to dr Lancelot Priestley, an egghead observer of the scene, to help out with a convincing explanation.
the sheer ingenuity of the plot, if, at times, a bit long-winded, will delight readers who take pleasure in mental puzzles.
THE SILENT POOL by Patricia Wentworth (Hodder £8.99) to SettLe down with a novel by Patricia wentworth is to enter the comfort zone of crime fiction. as the pivot for her stories, the gentle Maud Silver, a spinster of uncertain age, observes and deduces over the click of knitting needles.
In the Silent Pool, a famous actress, adriana ford, shares with Miss Silver her fears that someone in her household of impecunious relatives and hangers- on is plotting her death.
a few days later, a murder does take place, but the victim is not adriana. the woman found drowned in the pond has been mistaken for the actress by virtue of a borrowed coat. Miss Silver is called in to identify the killer and thus prevent another tragedy.
a country house setting for adulterous liaisons, petty jealousies and vicious backbiting brilliantly created holds no terror for a private investigator who ranks with the best of the golden-age detectives.