2021 mystery, sixth in its series. It's 1965, and the old impresario
has died—of rat poison. DI Edgar Stephens and his team investigate,
and his wife's own private enquiry agency gets involved too…
There's rather less leaning on the period atmosphere dispenser in
this book; a character who's a part-time journalist is called away to
cover the Moors murders
trial but that's about
it. Which I think is fair enough; the past may be another country, but
people are still people, and it's hard to tie characters to historical
events without giving them feelings of being in historical events,
which hardly anyone thinks at the time. (See also Adrian McKinty's
books set in 1980s Belfast.) For me the balance is just about right
here.
Matters were rather spoiled for me by one anachronism: a character who
believes she's pregnant automatically assumes that she will be teetotal
until the birth, and this was not only not the orthodox position until
the 1980s-1990s, it would actually have been contrary to medical
advice in most places. (More usual advice would have been a pint of
stout a day, to build up the body's store of nutrients.)
Still, other parts of the story work better. Bert Billington had no
shortage of enemies, but his children are sharply split as to what
they think may have happened, and some of them many even have been
involved. One of the sons is a big name film star, which gives Max
Mephisto an excuse to be involved, though his narrative is more about
his personal life than about actual investigation.
The meat of the book for me, though, was the passages dealing with
Edgar's wife Emma (formerly a detective sergeant before she married
him and was forced to retire) wanting to achieve things in her own
right but at the same time not to impair the official investigation by
not telling them the things she's found out. I especially enjoyed a
sequence in which she and WDC Meg Connolly (in effect Emma's
replacement as The One Female Cop) go off for a semi-official joint
interview session at the other end of the country.
Yes, I'm reading more for the people and atmosphere than for a
sophisticated murder plot, but it's not a bad one and it follows the
rules. I'll admit I preferred the 1950s setting of the first four
books, but I think Griffiths had done what she usefully could with
that and wisely moved on rather than wearing it out.