1990 mystery, third in the John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries series. A
series of high-value burglaries turns lethal; and an ageing actress
is murdered at her soirée, having mentioned that she might be planning
to change her will. Sanders investigates; Jeffries was a guest at the
party…
As a mystery, it's fairly straightforward: I suspect that very
few readers will be surprised by the identity of the murderer. But the
story that Sale hangs on this admittedly fairly threadbare plot is an
effective one of people; there's consideration of evidence,
particularly in terms of who had access to drop the poison into the
fatal teacup, but much more important is consideration of who has both
the motive and the personality to commit the crime.
The victim's daughters, and her nephew, are all spoiled rich kids, but
they've been spoiled in accordance with their personalities, and they
come off as quite distinct from each other – and at the same time one
can see how Sanders the outsider might at first be inclined to tar
them all with the same brush.
Sanders also resumes his affair with Jeffries, and while these are
both spiky people who can at times be quite unpleasant I found very
effective the portrayal of their learning to make useful compromises
in the lives that they've been living independently in order to be
able to be together.
One branch of investigation is pruned prematurely by a confession and
flight, and I felt that it could have been more interesting if
followed further, but all in all I enjoyed this rather a lot, even if
it does feel more like a 1970s book than a 1990s one.
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