Classic Crime to kick off the year: Against the Grain by Peter Lovesey, Trusted Like the
Against the Grain by Peter Lovesey (Little, Brown £21.99, 368pp)
It’s farewell to Superintendent Peter Diamond, acerbic and technologically challenged head of Bath CID. In his last case before retirement, he takes time out from official duties to investigate what he believes to be a miscarriage of justice.
A young tearaway, daughter of a wealthy landowner, has been serving time for manslaughter. Diamond is convinced that the death of a party guest by suffocation in a grain silo was not caused by criminal neglect but a deliberate killing.
An outstanding storyteller, Lovesey has a talent for adding the light touch to the traditional police procedural. Diamond is a cantankerous taskmaster but we shall miss him.
A gem of a final case for Detective Diamond
Trusted Like the Fox by Sara Woods (Dean Street Press £10.99, 214pp)
Trusted Like The Fox is available now
Long out of print, the courtroom dramas of Sara Woods are enjoying a welcome revival. Trusted Like The Fox has Anthony Maitland, a rising star of the criminal bar, defending a scientist accused of wartime treachery. Advances in biological weaponry have been passed to the enemy.
The case against the chief suspect looks bleak when it is revealed that he had motive and opportunity for stealing secret papers while living under a false identity.
To prove the innocence of his client, Maitland must dig deep into events at a research establishment where the clash of temperaments and loyalties have spilt over to violence.
Plausible characters in a cleverly contrived plot, with Maitland seeking a chink in the prosecution armour, make for a compelling read.
Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper (British Library £9.99, 272pp)
The formidable matriarch of an extended family invites a motley gathering of relatives, friends and hangers-on to join her for a weekend soiree.
But when they arrive in the freezing cold, they can find no sign of life behind the locked door and fastened windows. It is only when the police force entry that the grisly truth is revealed. Their hostess has been strangled to death.
With the murderer, one of a small group of prime suspects, hiding in plain sight, it falls to Inspector Corby, a methodical upholder of the law, to expose an unexpected killer.
First published half a century ago, Tea On Sunday was originally underrated as sub-standard Agatha Christie. But the wheel having turned full circle, the novel can now be recognised for its true worth.
A beguiling mystery that’s brilliantly constructed.