When recently ennobled Sir Rufus Seward is invited as a guest of honour to a civic reception in his home town of Elmhurst, after several years’ absence, he conveniently forgets his past and the people in Elmhurst with good reason to truly hate him. The result is his untimely death with a chisel thrust into his back.
D.I. Joseph Rafferty, as the investigating officer, has no shortage of suspects amongst the guests at the reception, but is placed in an impossible position when he receives a panicky message from his own younger brother Mickey admitting he found the man’s dead body. Mickey, having motive, opportunity and means (he is a carpenter by trade) had fled the scene, fearing he was in the frame for murder, and begs Joe for help in his dilemma. The feisty detective has mixed loyalties but breaks all the rules by colluding with his brother and finding him a bolthole until the real killer is caught.
This book has a complicated plot with unexpected twists and turns with even DI Rafferty’s superior, Superintendent Bradley, slightly involved as he was a guest at the reception and claims to have seen a blonde woman enter the victim’s room around the time of the murder. With ever-patient DS Llewellyn helping with the investigation, Rafferty delves into the past lives of people who were cruelly bullied and humiliated by the obnoxious murder victim, but results are slow in coming and with Christmas in the offing, Rafferty has to contend with discontent from his neglected fiancée Abra as well as the ungrateful Mickey whose safe bolthole is far from cosy. The reader is kept guessing throughout and the denouncement is convincing and clever.
Another enjoyable read from an author whose name is fast becoming a favourite with lovers of good crime fiction. Strongly recommended.
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Edna Jones