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Lindsay, Frederic

Idle Hands

London, Coronet (Hodder & Stoughton). 305 pp. £5.99.

But from what I've seen, people don't become real friends until they've shared bits of their past, how they got on with their parents, not real secrets maybe but things they don't usually talk about.

Everyone described retired businessman Iain Bower as being a nice man. Nice people don't give you any reason to kill them says DI Jim Meldrum, and yet not only was Iain Bower murdered, but in a scene both comic and disgusting someone peed into his grave at the funeral. Meldrum is very much a modern detective. He is full of contradictions and uncertainties. His marriage has broken down. Someone out there impersonates him. But contradictions and uncertainties do not stop him from persevering till the mystery is solved.

Iain Bower does not seem to have known anyone or associated with anyone, not even his own brother, who was to inherit his estate. Yet as the investigation progresses, Meldrum comes across more and more people who had known the murdered man but all they could say about him was that he was "nice". Perhaps they did not know him too well? Perhaps they knew him too well and were saying nothing lest they be implicated.

Then one by one they die. Murder or suicide ... both actually.

Time was when a large area of human behaviour was outside the scope of the entertainment that was the detective novel. All that has changed. Nothing seems to be outside the ken of the crime novel any longer. It is the crime novel which reveals the heart of darkness which is man's life today. We live in a world in which people live out any fantasies. Forgiveness is no longer viable.

This is the third of the DI Jim Meldrum thrillers.

Lovesey, Phil

Death Duties

London, Collins Crime, HarperCollins. 297 pp. £15.99.

You are a kindly vet and your daughter is teased that you kill animals. What do you tell her?

This father tells her. He is doing it to save them any further pain and when he has put them to sleep, they will go to heaven.

Next time Daddy the vet is ill the little girl does just that. She puts him to sleep forever and explains it to the two young policemen and a WPC. Will they believe her? She is only seven.

Thirty years later murdered bodies begin to turn up. The three original officers come together and begin to unravel the murders. First they have to go through understanding themselves, their relationship, their own insecurities and what can and can not be believed. Do children act of their own volition or are they manipulated?

This is a chilling story and is bound to make you reconsider the white lies you probably told your children.

The author claims to be one of the worst Badminton players in the south-east of England, implies that he is not a particularly great advertising copywriter but on the evidence turns out a stunning first novel.

Lovesey, Peter

Upon a Dark Night

New York, The Mysterious Press (Warner Bros). 374 pp. US $23.00.

An unidentified woman falls from the roof of the Royal Crescent during a party (the owners happened to boast at a pub that they had won the lottery and half the town gate-crashed the celebs in their home). Did she fall, was she pushed, was it suicide? An elderly farmer is found shot through the head. Was it murder or suicide?

Peter Lovesey's genius is the creation of unforgettable characters. Here it is Ada Shaftesbury. With two murders on his hands, Peter Diamond, the rough diamond sleuth, finds himself pursued by Ada. She wants him to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who has lost her memory. Ada is obese. She will steal from supermarkets but never from people. She will lie and cheat ... only to help others. She nudnicks and nudnicks Peter Diamond and just as well she does.

Peter Diamond has his own weight problems. He is not inclined to take women seriously. His own assistant walks out on him in the end (and serves him right). He is difficult to like. He only comes to life if he is investigating a murder, and here, hopefully, are two!

The beautiful city of Bath leaps at you from the pages of this book. Just the book to take on holiday with you if you are going to Bath and if not, to introduce you to Bath. Lots of quotations from the great Chinese philosopher Kai Lung. Just imagine! Bath with Kai Lung.

Apart from crime novels set in Victorian England and other times less long ago, Peter Lovesey has also produced crime novels in the here and now, and a crime writer son.