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Saer, Juan José

The Investigation
Translated by Helen Lane.

London, Serpent's Tail. 182 pp £9.99/US $ 14.99).

... if his hypothesis was correct, he was unable to share it in secret with anyone before having succeeded in proving it. He had to work alone.

Three mysteries intertwine.

Mystery No. 1: Twenty-seven elderly women are murdered in one area of Paris. Each seems to have invited her killer into her home and they had enjoyed a meal together. The killer bathed himself and left. Chief Inspector Morvan, a good team man, is put in charge of the investigation which proceeds along conventional lines.

Mystery No. 2: Meantime in Argentina an untitled manuscript is discovered by an unnamed author. The manuscript is found amongst the papers of a missing poet.

Mystery No. 3: But who is the narrator?

Part crime novel, part literary mystery, part journey into the psyche of a killer. The sentences are, alas, overlong, but the book is too short for them to make it tedious. Very much a book for the intellectual.

Juan José Saer lives in Paris. He received Spain's Nadal prize for "The Event".

Smith, Frank

Candles for the Dead

London, Constable Crime. 224 pp. 16.99 sterling.

On the eve of promotion, Beth Smallwood, bank employee, is found battered to death. Who would possibly want to murder such a harmless near to middle-age lady! Once Chief Inspector Neil Paget and his team begin to investigate they discover she may not have been such a nice person after all (reader is left to decide), and there are plenty of suspects. Chief suspect is her own son, but when he is found dead that doesn't seem to narrow the number of those likely to have killed her.

Small town life, ambitions and passions rage. In a small local bank the few staff there are desperately vie for promotion. The manager knows that if he cuts down on staff it will be to his credit. This allows him to force himself on employees, to blackmail by threatening to withhold promotion or sack them. Local cops are pitted against local villains.

When Paget solves the case, one is caught between wanting to laugh at the killer's naivete or cry at hopeless ambition.
Paget's personal life is also complicated. He has to cope with the anniversary of his wife's death and the return of an old flame. He matures with the realization that memories of the past and living in the past are two very different matters.

A traditional English type cosy set in Canada.

Frank A. Smith comes from British Columbia.