Between 1987
and 1994 Roy Hart, a British avionics engineer, wrote nine police procedurals fronted
by Detective Superintendent Douglas Roper of the Dorset County Criminal
Investigation Department on the southern coast of England. In line with the procedural
that was popular in the 1980s, they are all set in villages and the plots all
focus on the investigation rather than the psychology of the crime. While there
are quirky characters, they take a back seat to the detailed and systematic
description of police activities in collecting and sifting clues to find the
culprit. The fifth in the series Robbed Blind (Macmillan London, 1990)
is a good example.
The night of
Good Friday in the village of Little Crow Stella Pumfrey was found dead at the
foot of the stairs in her home. Her shoe caught in the carpet on the landing
bore mute testimony to an accidental fall that caused Stella’s head to collide
with ferocity against the newel post. The post-mortem, though, showed the
damage to Stella’s skull could not have been caused by the fall.
By the time the
police received the autopsy report recommending further investigation, the
crime scene had been thoroughly contaminated, much to Roper’s frustration.
Initial inquiries reveal that Stella had money and her husband and her sister
were in line to inherit it. Neither of them was on good terms with the victim.
Then there was the lover rumored to be in the background. But perhaps it was
not personal at all: an exquisite and valuable pair of earrings is missing.
Could she have been surprised by the burglar that was known to be in the
neighborhood? As Roper talks to Stella’s family and friends, he finds no
shortage of possible scenarios and people with adverse interests to Stella’s.
This series
seems to have flown under the radar in the U.S. The first two titles were not
published here, and none of them seem to have been reprinted after the initial
hardback and paperback issue. Roper isn’t given much of a back story, although
there is some information about him, and perhaps he wasn’t vivid enough to
capture lasting interest. A review from Publishers Weekly said he lacked
the edge of a Sherlock Holmes, although both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
spoke highly of the series. While nine books is a respectable run, timing
probably also affected its popularity, as reading tastes were moving towards
gritty, violent crime fiction with lots of action.
I found this
series entry a solid, capable detective story with complex plotting, plenty of
red herrings, and plausible suspects. Recommended for fans of police
procedurals and admirers of traditional mysteries.
·
Publisher: St Martins Press; First Edition
(January 1, 1990)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 206 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0312044143
·
ISBN-13: 978-0312044145
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/44b3G80
Aubrey Nye Hamilton
©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is
a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries
at night.
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