CLASSIC CRIME
THE PART-TIME JOB by P . D. James (Faber £3.50, 48 pp)
THE PART-TIME JOB
by P . D. James (Faber £3.50, 48 pp)
Remembered for some of the finest crime novels, P. D. James would now be approaching her centenary.
In celebration, one of her short stories has been published for the first time in book form, along with an essay on readers’ appetites for ‘murder most foul’.
The skill of the modern mystery writer, she argues, is in ringing the changes to appeal to those no longer in thrall to the country house murder — when the library was the most lethal room in England.
This, says James, requires a combination of rational deduction with the ‘psychological subtleties and moral ambiguities of a good novel’. The accompanying story proves her point. Targeting a boyhood enemy, an apparently rational killer evolves a near foolproof plan for revenge. In just a few pages we are treated to a sufficiently credible plot, convincing characters and indelible images.
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THE SPOILT KILL by Mary Kelly (British Library £8.99, 224 pp)
THE SPOILT KILL
by Mary Kelly (British Library £8.99, 224 pp)
It helps to make sense of the title to know that ‘kill’ is the Staffordshire pronunciation of ‘kiln’. To wit, we are in the Potteries for this intriguing murder mystery.
Found floating in liquid clay, the victim remains unidentified while we are given the back story of investigator Hedley Nicholson, engaged by a leading potter to unmask whoever is selling original designs to unscrupulous rivals.
The assignment proves knotty as Nicholson becomes romantically attached to the chief suspect, a woman with a mysterious past. When we eventually find out who has met a sticky end, Nicholson himself is under suspicion.
Left to solve a case of industrial espionage and a murder, he must battle his own demons to learn the truth. After a 60-year interval, this is a welcome reinstatement to the higher ranks of classic crime for Kelly.
A QUIET DEATH IN ITALY
A QUIET DEATH IN ITALY by Tom Benjamin (Constable £8.99, 336 pp)
by Tom Benjamin (Constable £8.99, 336 pp)
As one of Italy’s tourist hotspots, Bologna is not all it seems. At least, not according to Tom Benjamin, whose debut novel blows the lid off a political cauldron in which Leftist agitators, property moguls, the police and city elders struggle for survival and dominance.
Enter Daniel Leicester, an English private investigator who works with his father-in-law, the former chief of police. When called upon to nail the killer of a prominent anarchist who just happens to have had an affair with the mayor’s wife, Leicester puts himself at risk while unveiling secrets that perhaps ought to have been left buried.
It’s slow to take off, but once it gets going this is hard to put aside. With this promising start, an early return for our Anglo-Italian sleuth can be confidently predicted.
