DI Joseph Rafferty has problems. He has just attended the scene of the second copse in a week and is morbidly confident that the third will be reported before the week is out. Compounding his problems, his Ma, who is always on the look out for a ‘bargain’ and is non to choosey of the bargain’s origins, has sold a wedding suit to Rafferty’s Welsh Sgt, Dafyd Llewellyn, who is more upright and law-abiding than the Pope.
When a hated company manager is found dead at his desk, Rafferty takes no pleasure in that his premonition has been vindicated. There are more suspects than one can shake a stick at. Certainly, all the office personnel from poor Harris on his third warning ,to Linda Luscombe, single mother. Then there are the cleaners, and the security staff, not to mention the day’s visitors, all therefore needing all Rafferty’s attention, but the whole of his investigation is overshadowed by the thoughts of Llewellyn’s impending wedding day, and the obvious expensive suit, which seems to have acquired a Marks & Spencer label, sure to be a talking point, groans Rafferty.
Well this was a real find, Geraldine Evans knows how to make a character leap off the pages at you. PC Timothy Smales does not actually appear for a couple of chapters, but I knew him so well before he even made an appearance, and Sgt Llewellyn reminded me of ‘Paget’ in Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit.
Although only a brief appearance is made by the Company’s owner Alistair Plumley, we know him. As was explained to Rafferty, ‘Alistair Plumley doesn’t like people dying on the premises. Apart from being bad for the company image it shows a sad lack of team spirit. Plumley likes his employees to die in their own time, and on their own premises.’
Between numerous suspects and the ‘iffy’ suit, Rafferty has his work cut out;
but surprises abound. The blurb on this book says Bizarre, quirky and ingenious,
I can’t disagree with that.
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Lizzie Hayes
Other titles in the series are Dead Before Morning, Down Among the Dead Men,
Death Line and The Hanging Tree.