‘Smokescreen’ by Betty Rowlands
Published by Severn House. ISBN 978-0-7278-666-1
Smokescreen opens with a scene with which many writers, crime and others, will be familiar, namely the book signing in a library by a writer who has been short-listed for a Novel of the Year award. The two Detective Constables featured in the story are Sukey Reynolds and Vicky Armstrong and Vicky, an avid reader of romantic fiction, persuades Sukey to accompany her to the library. The writer, Jennifer Cottrell, is promoting her latest book A Passion for Life and, after a somewhat self-centred talk, invites questions. She is surprised by an hysterical outburst by a woman, Wendy Downe, who accuses the writer of killing her lover and ends with the sentence, "I hate you - and I wish you were dead too". Predictably, the next day, the writer is found dead in her bath.
In solving the murder, and those which follow, the two Detective Constables are closely involved and their relationship, on and off duty is explored. Jennifer Cottrell's domestic life on a country estate a few miles outside Bristol is described along with her domestic staff. So the setting has echoes of some of the novels of Agatha Christie which are set in an enclosed community, though considerably more characters are introduced as the story progresses. Unlike Christie's novels, the detective work is done by the police force, not by an amateur, and the two women lead the investigation with the help of the rest of the force of Detective Constable, Detective Sergeant, Police Constable and all these play their part so the book is closely concerned with police procedure and investigation. Matters are complicated when Wendy Downe is murdered. Read on!
The book makes an interesting read which enters into considerable detail of background , relationships and plot. Skilfully, Rowlands has woven into the story a feature of modern life, by including the dilemma in which readers ,and viewers, find themselves by confusing fantasy and reality, by thinking that what happens in fiction actually happened in real life e.g. by sending flowers to the funeral of a fictional character.
This is the ninth novel by Betty Rowlands which features Sukey Reynolds so enjoy a good read.
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Rosemary Brown