1997 mystery; third of Cutler's novels of Sophie Rivers, a teacher in
a sixth-form college in Birmingham. Seconded to a new college for a
project, Sophie finds the proximity to her home and the high equipment
budget don't compensate for a strange managerial attitude… or for
murder.
There's obvious political ranting here, not only about the
corporatisation of Birmingham's colleges but about the changes in the
law that had quietly made effective strike action impossible ("first
they came for the miners"). But that's a relatively minor part of the
story; and so, too, are the two murders, because really this book is
about Sophie, her awkward relationship with DI Chris Groom, and the
pushy middle-aged man who seems suddenly to keep appearing in her
life, even though he doesn't seem actually to like her much.
It's not that the murders aren't important, and Sophie investigates as
she has before; it's that she's not a detective, she's a teacher, and
she has other things to do, having to squeeze in moments of
investigation between fighting with the college and dashing off to
teach an A-level class. But the unmasking of the villain is delayed
mostly by the reader's remaining sense of plausibility rather than by
any lack of evidence.
There's plenty of Birmingham geography, but less of the multi-ethnic
feel that I enjoyed in the earlier books. On the other hand Sophie is
not one of those static series characters; she's learned some new
skills since last time we saw her, and she slowly grows as a person
too. This isn't great mystery writing, but it's remarkably good
writing full stop.
Followed by Dying for Millions.
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