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Aird, Catherine

Little Knell
A Detective Inspector Sloan Mystery

London, Macmillan. 201 pp. £16.99.

"Money doesn't mean anything in the drugs world. The only problem the dealer has is how to use it without showing too much and getting noticed."

The old colonel is dead and the contents of his house have to be cleared. One item proves difficult to manoeuvre - the heavy lead coffin containing an Egyptian mummy. The spanner in the works is the local coroner who points out that a body cannot be moved without his say so. Even an ancient mummy. The mummy must be examined by the office of the coroner, he insists. It turns out to be the body of a young girl and she has only been dead a few weeks. (So how did the coroner know … hmmmm.) And where has the mummy gone?

Lots of suspects, but no proof. Not for a while.

Then the local ne'er-do-well is murdered. As usual the second murder is the pointer.

The reader is focused on the police investigation, but Inspector Sloan is also focused on where the money from the local drugs scene had gone. Plus who sent his wife those beautiful roses?

A wry, entertaining British cosy.

Eighteen plus novels from where this one came from.

Aird, Catherine

Stiff News

London, Pan Books. 227 pp. £5.99

"Their ages have got nothing to do with it. A crime is a crime is a crime."

Almstone Manor is a retirement home for the Fearnshire Regiment. No one was very surprised when Gertrude Powell as found dead. After all, she was eighty plus. She had also been very ill. But on the morning of the funeral, her son had received a letter from her claiming that someone was trying to kill her.

Inspector Sloan was sent in to stop the funeral and conduct an investigation. Gertrude Powell had led an exciting life, alright, but who would want to murder her after all those years? Why did she never speak of her second husband, not even revealing his name. What was the Pragmatic Sanction which was mentioned by the ancient residents of the Manor more or less under their breath.

Then Inspector Sloan discovers that in the last three years alone six or was it eight residents had died, some not in their beds.

Up to this point the story is wry, sometimes humorous, witty, entertaining, full of character and characters. It is only at the end that dark overtones take over as Inspector Sloan unravels the mystery, by which time nothing is comic or amusing (though the book might be still be considered entertaining).

Catherine Aird is a doyenne of the cosy British whodunnit.

Atkins, Meg Elizabeth

Cruel as the Grave

Hexham, UK, Flambard Press. 204 pp. £6.99.

The body of an unknown woman is found in the River Chat near Miller's Bridge. Accident or murder? Detective Chief Inspector Sheldon Hunter and his team begin to uncover what may possibly have happened. How could it possibly be murder in that small genteel Cheshire town. Everyone is nice. Some are nicer than others, but they are all nice there. Especially Liz Farrell, to whom Hunter is drawn more and more. (Don't you believe that British coppers don't get involved emotionally with the folk they deal with.) Then Reggie, who had claimed not to know the woman, commits suicide and leaves a note owning up to the murder. A murder investigation costs money. The budget is tight. Hunter's boss is satisfied there is nothing more to be uncovered and orders that the investigation should now be written off under Home Office Rules intended to ensure the police don't do their job properly. Hunter is a tenacious bulldog type. Supported by his team, he continues unofficially with the investigation. The Brits might be law-abiding, but they ain't regulation-abiding. Of all the nice, genteel people, the nicest and most genteel did it!

A really nice snapshot of a small English town, the everyday problems people face, how they see their own problems, how they sometimes leave them alone, and how resolve them, sometimes murderously.

Meg Elizabeth Atkins lives in a North Yorkshire, writes fiction and non-fiction, and teaches creative writing. The Flambard Press publishes one crime novel a year but promise to do better.