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Eccles, Marjorie

Killing Me Softly

London, Constable. 205 pp. £16.99.

Another one of those dangerous small English towns, the bailiwick of Inspector Mayo and his assistant, Abigail Moon. An overstretched police force has to deal with drugs, whose occurrence is above permissible levels.

A member of a well-known family is murdered. The man had been married to a loyal, devoted, hard-working wife and he womanised, claimed to be a financier and was hopeless in business. His father-in-law didn't like him much. Neither did anyone else. Everyone had a motive. Best friends betrayed each other in love. But who had the opportunity?

Once again the rivalries, hatreds and ambitions bubble over in the cauldron of a small town. The rich ones, the drop-outs, everyone knows everyone else but knows little enough about them. People know they are doing wrong and cannot help themselves. The case is solved (the solution will be staring you in the face) and Abigail is reunited with her love.

Marjorie Eccles comes from Yorkshire. This is her tenth Inspector Gil Mayo novel.

Eccles, Marjorie

The Superintendent's Daughter

London, Constable. 240 pp. £16.99.

Superintendent Gil Mayo, head of Lavenstock CID, has a daughter named Julie. Julie Mayo and Kathryn Conolly have been close friends since their schooldays. Kathryn is found murdered. Julie has gone missing. Is daughter Julie guilty? Could it be that it was she who was the intended victim? This might be Superintendent Gil Mayo's most important case, except that he is excluded from the investigation. His colleagues know that he is not one to sit on his backside, letting everything go on around him. He isn't getting any official support, but there will be no interference either. And so, while Inspector Abigail Moon carries out the murder inquiry, Gil Mayo "assists". Abigail is assigned a woman superior and decides she prefers working for Gil Mayo.

The victim's letters are found, but they pose more problems than they resolve. Did she really see herself rushing towards disaster, or was that hindsight. There are people who wish to forget their past, hoping it is dead and gone, but in a murder investigation there is no scope for sparing the feelings of all those involved. One of them might be a murderer, and in this case the murderer had tried to implicate an innocent person.

The case is solved using a combination of psychology and police work. The past had, indeed, reared its ugly head, set on some very ugly shoulders.

And if you leave your money to your children, do teach them how to handle it.

Apart from short stories for broadcasting, Marjorie Eccles has written sixteen novels in all, this being the eleventh Superintendent Gil Mayo investigation.

Edwards, Ruth Dudley

Publish and Be Murdered

London, Collins Crime. 217 pp. £15.99.

The Wrangler is a right-wing, 200-year old English magazine. It has a thoroughly inefficient editor (William Lambie Crump) who brings it to near bankruptcy. A new columnist is appointed to try and save the paper. The staff are at daggers drawn for personal and ideological reasons. The paper has switched from supporting the Conservatives to New Labour, who seem to think that "fun" is an acronym (readers are invited to submit answers on a postcard). Henry Potbury, the deputy editor, is found drowned in a bowl of punch. Of course the police see it as a natural death. Potbury is a natural drunk, you see.

Murder No. 2, the editor himself, and the police decide it may be an idea to start investigating. Too many people have a motive, political, professional, personal plus opportunity. Two murders. Are there two murderers or one? It's just the evidence that is missing.

This is a delightful farce set against the background of a magazine that everyone who knows the London scene will recognise but anyone anywhere can enjoy. We have the media everywhere and how we enjoy having it mocked! It is also very funny about being faithful (or otherwise) to one's lover.

Ruth Dudley Edwards, of course, is Irish, and true Irishwoman that she is lives and works in England.