A welcome return for Wexford

No Man's Nightingale, the new title from Ruth Rendell, is another chance to meet old favourite Reg Wexford.  Now retired and plain Mr Wexford, he is - like John Rebus - unable to step away into an armchair retirement.  Instead he finds himself travelling between Suffolk and London as he is drawn into a murder investigation.

Sara Hussain, an ordained single mother, is found murdered in the vicarage but there all clichés end.  Instead we are led into a convoluted investigation.  Sara has left behind an orphaned daughter and a mysterious past.  Several people know about her history but the accounts conflict.  Wexford finds his interest growing as he hears from several people, including his wife, Dora, who is a member of Sara's congregation, about the affect Sara has had on the community and Mike Burden, once Wexford's bagman but now heading the murder investigation, is glad to co-opt his old boss and use his experience and knowledge of the community to good effect.

There are many twists to the plot and a little conflict between Wexford and Burden but their combined wisdom opens up some interesting social issues before the mysteries in the book are resolved.

The Wexford series is a long one now but each title adds pleasingly to our knowledge of these characters who are like old friends to their regular readers.  The author knows their foibles so well and is such a good psychologist that her characters always have a satisfying realism and truth about them.  Long may Reg Wexford continue to dabble in crime and to irritate Mike Burden to such good effect!

A book of two halves

Cry of the Children is the latest novel in the police procedural Lambert & Hook series by J.M. Gregson and is the first of this long series which I have read.  Gregson is an author new to me and as a lover of UK procedurals I was pleased to be given the opportunity to read and review.  However I have to admit that it didn't please me as much as I had hoped.

I'll try to avoid spoilers but it starts with a classic scenario: every parent's nightmare, a missing child.  That is well described and like any parent whose child has disappeared from sight, however briefly, I could identify with the heart-jolting nightmare.  The set up was therefore a good one and well written with a building of tension and interesting protagonists, both victims and police personnel.

The difficulties for me in suspending disbelief came for me as the situation developed.  The police identified five possible suspects: none had plausible alibis, all seemed to have personality flaws and something to hide from the investigating officers and lots of red herrings were flung and though the crime was solved (and another criminal was apprehended in the course of the action) I felt that the set-up of these suspects was clumsily and implausibly handled.

Contrasting crimes

     With some spare time this week, I've read a couple of crime novels in very different styles and moods so this is by way of being one of those "compare and contrast..." exam questions in a way, though to me it's a reflection of the fact that even within a genre I enjoy different types of books according to the atmosphere in which I'm reading. 

     The first book is Noose by Bill James.  I took this one on holiday on my kindle, which was a mistake in a way because the book is quite a complex one and (sorry, Amazon) it's very difficult to follow a plot which moves backwards and forwards in time if one can't flip back the pages to ascertain exactly what is happening to characters.  Without giving away any of the plot to those who haven't read this title yet, it is very different from other books I have read by this author, having political themes and linking events from the childhood of the main character, a journalist named Ian Charteris, with issues of national security.  The counterpoint of past and present was, in places, quite clunky in using period details such as "Think of this new play by John Osborne, Look Back in Anger" while I'm not sure how many modern readers are going to be familiar with the reputations of the real people who inhabit the story, such as Tom Driberg  and Anthony Eden.  So if you are interested, try this title but don't assume that it's a typical Bill James story and do read it in hard print!

     The second title is a new M.C. Beaton title from the Agatha Raisin series and this one is titled Something Borrowed, Someone Dead.  M.C. Beaton is a very interesting lady and an amazingly prolific writer of historical, crime and romantic fiction as well as having been a major figure on Fleet Street.  Having been resident in the USA for a large part of her life it has been good to welcome her back to the British crime writing festivals circuit where she is always an excellent panel member.  I really enjoy the light style she uses for the quirky Agatha Raisin, a bizarre lady of a certain age who gets involved in the most unlikely adventures set in idyllic Cotswold locations.  Don't be fooled by the cozy locations though - Agatha can find herself in the midst of serious gore!  If you haven't tried this series, you could start with any title and you will soon familiarise yourself with the cast of recurring characters - perfect for a read-in-a-sitting evening by yourself!