Jules Jones

62) Reginald Hill -- Ruling Passion

Third of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. At the end of the last book Peter Pascoe had got back together with old flame Ellie, and now they're invited to spend a weekend with four of their old university friends. They're late because Peter's been tied up with a serial burglary case that looks as if it's escalating to violence.

What they find when they finally arrive is a scene of carnage. Three people are dead, the fourth is missing in circumstances that lead the local police to make him chief suspect. Pascoe's involvement in the case is officially as a witness, but he can't help but get involved in the investigation, even if unofficially. These are his friends, after all, and he can't believe that one of them could really have changed so much as to commit murder. As the case progresses, Pascoe finds his ambiguous status of use to the official investigation, but an ever increasing source of frustration for himself. And Dalziel wants him back in Yorkshire, the more urgently because the burglary case has turned very nasty indeed.

The nature of the plot means that the book focuses strongly on Pascoe, with Dalziel largely present as a supporting role. It nevertheless shows the growth in the relationship between the two men, in a story that twists and turns until the various plot strands finally come together. This is a superb study of a policeman struggling and frequently failing to retain his professional detachment in the face of a crime that strikes only too close to home.

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42) Agatha Christie -- A Murder Is Announced

Miss Marple novel. A murder is announced at the home of Miss Blacklock, by way of an ad in the local paper announcing the time and place. It's assumed by Miss Blacklock's household that it's some sort of unpleasant joke, and by everyone else in Chipping Cleghorn that it's announcing a murder mystery party. A large contingent contrive to drop in at the time announced -- only to see a real attempted murder and suicide. But was it suicide, or was the young man who shot at Miss Blacklock simply a cat's paw for someone else who then disposed of him?

Beautifully constructed mystery, with the clues all there but skillfully disguised, in a lovely study of English village life soon after the end of the Second World War.

LibraryThing entry