Lesa's Book Critiques: Slight Mourning by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Slight Mourning by Catherine Aird

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Constable Country by Catherine Aird

  

Constable Country (Allison & Busby, 2023) is apparently the final book in the long-running British detective series by Catherine Aird (1930-1924) featuring Inspector Christopher Dennis Sloan of the fictional Berebury CID department in West Calleshire, England. Known as “C.D.” which invariably is pronounced “Seedy”, Sloan is generally accompanied by a clueless constable named Crosby, to whom Sloan has been unable to teach much of anything. Sloan reports to Superintendent Leeyes, irritable, demanding, and of no assistance during an investigation. Leeyes frequents the local Adult Education classes and is prone to quoting odd bits of information from the latest class that may or may not be relevant to the subject at hand. His adversarial approach to hearing about new topics has been known to get him booted out of class, leaving Leeyes to fulminate about the uninformed instructor.

Michael Wakefield, part owner of the high-end printing firm Forres and Wakefield, learns the day before the annual accounting audit of the books that the company he has worked so hard to establish is bankrupt. He had no idea that his partner Malcolm Forres has been systematically embezzling for years. With a new accountant onboard who was sure to report the defalcations, Forres emptied the bank accounts and fled to Europe in the middle of the night, leaving Wakefield facing a mountain of debt and looming bankruptcy.

While Sloan does not understand white collar crime and prefers a straightforward burglary, he knows embezzlement is illegal and begins to delve into bank statements and to interview the accountants. A day after Forres absconded, despite the stress, Wakefield focused on printing and binding the Earl of Ornum’s latest book in time to deliver copies for the launch party two days later. The books were produced and a sample was delivered by the firm’s apprentice Lenny Datchet to Ornum House, where the earl’s outrageously flirtatious twin daughters demanded rides on Lenny’s motorbike. In return, they invited Lenny to the launch party.

The morning after the party Lenny was found dead in one of the guest rooms in Ornum House, expanding the scope of the Forres and Wakefield investigation. The attempted murder of another of the peripheral players further confuses everyone.

Sloan is practical and focused as always here and navigates between the unhelpful Leeyes and the clumsy Crosby to a successful conclusion. The solution is innovative and the motive unexpected. The pieces mostly fall together nicely once Sloan sorts them out, although I found a couple of plot questions unanswered.

A pleasant traditional mystery of which I find far too few of these days. I would like to think that another three or four books in the series are lurking in Aird’s papers somewhere but I suspect we would have heard about them by now. So I will have to content myself with re-visiting the earlier adventures of Sloan and his colleagues in Calleshire County occasionally.

Followers of the series will not want to miss this one. Readers new to Catherine Aird should start with an earlier title.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Allison & Busby

·         Publication date: ‎June 22, 2023

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0749030755

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0749030759

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/43jvxnh

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: His Burial Too by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: His Burial Too by Catherine Aird

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Late Phoenix by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Late Phoenix by Catherine Aird

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird

Lesa's Book Critiques: Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Most Contagious Game by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Most Contagious Game by Catherine Aird

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Religious Body by Catherine Aird

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Religious Body by Catherine Aird

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Inheritance Tracks: A Sloan and Crosby Mystery by Catherine Aird

 

I thought I had read all of the Inspector Sloan books by Catherine Aird, having discovered the series perhaps 10 years ago. But a Kindle edition of one of her books popped up at a reduced price recently and it prompted me to compare my copies with those available, which led to the identification of three or four missing titles. One of them is Inheritance Tracks (Severn House, 2019), a wonderful traditional mystery strongly reminiscent of Agatha Christie with references to John Galsworthy.

Mrs. Sue Port, Clive Culshaw, Miss Samantha Peters, Martin Pickford, and Tom Culshaw are called to the office of Puckle, Puckle, and Nunnery in Berebury to hear that they are the recipients of a trust established by their great-great-great grandfather or granduncle Mayton; relationships that far removed from the progenitor are complicated. Mayton had made a fortune by selling a patented nostrum during the first part of the 1800s. The trust itself is a tortuous instrument that evokes comparisons to the trust developed by Timothy Forsyte, the youngest of the wealthy Forsyte brothers in The Forsyte Saga. Another inheritor has yet to be located, and no distribution can be made until he can be found. Puckle is hopeful that one of the cousins he has found knows where the missing one might be; unfortunately they don’t.

The trust itself is a sort of tontine such that if any of the inheritors dies, their share of the money does not go to his or her beneficiaries but instead to the rest of the trust participants, thereby increasing their share. Christie used this financial device in 4:50 from Paddington (What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! in the U.S.) Because of this arrangement, when one of the inheritors dies under odd circumstances Puckle is worried enough about it to request a police investigation. He knows nothing of the trust beneficiaries and he fears one may be starting a homicidal career.

Because Puckle has heard the missing cousin might be part of the street-living community, the issue of homelessness is examined in some detail and approaches to resolve it, as well as their success rate, are described. For instance, one of the store owners has installed a sound machine in the back of his building to discourage rough sleepers from congregating there.

Sloan never seems to escape being assigned to monitor Constable Crosby, who is incapable of learning his job and in real life would have been booted out of the force long ago. However, fiction being what it is, he remains to provide comic relief. The scene in which Crosby describes a prank one of the sergeants at the station plays on Crosby and some of his equally dense colleagues is priceless.

The plot is a classic Golden Age fair play mystery. Highly recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Severn House; First World Publication edition (August 1, 2019)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎208 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎072788932X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0727889324 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/44NCezm 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Parting Breath: Catherine Aird

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Bitter Tea and Mystery: Six Degrees of Separation: From The Optimist's Daughter to Wave Me Goodbye

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Six Degrees of Separation: From The Optimist's Dau...:   The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest . The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and ...

SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: An interview with DS Max Craige

SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: An interview with DS Max Craige: Neil Lancaster is the author of the DS Max Craigie series. The first novel in the series Dead Man's Grave  was longlisted for the 2021 W...

FFB Review: The Religious Body: The Calleshire Chronicles Book One by Catherine Aird

Readers familiar with Aubrey Nye Hamilton’s reviews each Monday are aware that Aubrey is a fan of this series. Back in September 2017 she reviewed A Dead Liberty which is the twelfth book in the series. She reminded you of this series when she reviewed the twenty-second book in the series, Past Tense. After two reminders, it seemed like a god idea not to wait for a third. So, I went to the beginning with The Religious Body.

After you read the reviews, make sure you head over to Patti Abbott’s blog as well as Aubrey Nye Hamilton’s Happiness Is A Warm Book blog and see what they suggest today. Todd Mason is back collecting links so you will have even more suggestions om his Sweet Freedom blog later. 

The Religious Body by Catherine Aird is the first book in The Calleshire Chronicles and is a good one. What initially presents as a locked room mystery set in a nunnery is far more complex than the initial set up would have the reader believe.

 

It is early November and before dawn at the Convent of St. Anselm as the book begins. Sister Mary St. Gertrude arises, and is her role each morning, goes about her morning duties. It is her duty this month and she moves through the building following the prescribed order of awakening all inside those walls. It takes a while with more than fifty people to awaken so that each may go about their day. As a result, it takes a while for the bloody thumbprint to gain attention and for the realization that Sister Anne can’t be found.

 

So, several hours have passed before Inspector C. D. Sloan and Detective-Constable William Crosby, a young officer and new to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Berebury Division of the Calleshire Constabulary, are dispatched to the covenant located a few miles away in Cullingoak village. Upon arrival, it takes additional time for them to be allowed into the inner rooms of the Covent and eventually to the body. Sister Anne is at the bottom of the cellar stairs and clearly died due to some sort of blow to her head that reshaped her skull. It is also clear, at least to C. D. Sloan, she did not die as a result of falling down the stairs.

 

To catch a killer, they have to work a case where normal witness behavior goes totally against the rules of the Convent and the faith and practice of the nuns. It is a good thing C. D. Sloan has the patience of a saint coupled with a touch of subtle humor and a knowledge of history.  Not just helpful with the nuns, his skills also help him manage his boss.

 

A complex mystery full of clues and misdirection The Religious Body by Catherine Aird is a solidly good read. It moves fast despite the subtle observations about life and other things expressed by Inspector C. D. Sloan that are mixed in throughout the read. A solidly good foundation is laid here in the first book and I very much enjoyed it.

 

As my local library does not have this read in print, I was forced to go with the digital version via the library. While my copy from Open Road Media indicates the book is 210 pages, it was actually far less than that as there were ads for other reads as well as a long excerpt from the start of the next book in the series, Henrietta Who? That book is available in large print and is now on my holds list at the Dallas library.

 

 

  

The Religious Body: The Calleshire Chronicles Book One

Catherine Aird

http://www.catherineaird.com/

Open Road Media

https://openroadmedia.com/search/the%20religious%20body

May 2015

ASIN: B00USNENO8

eBook

210 Pages

 

 

Material came by way of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Past Tense by Catherine Aird

Readers should note that this is the second appearance of a book by Catherine Aird in Aubrey’s column here. She previously reviewed A Dead Liberty. I am pretty sure Aubrey is a fan.

Catherine Aird, who won the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger Award in 2015, produced about two dozen novels and collections of short fiction about Christopher Dennis Sloan, head of the tiny Berebury CID department in the West Calleshire police force. (In an early book his name was Charles Dennis.) He uses his initials C.D. and is called Seedy by his closest associates. This is a wonderful set of books, written in the tradition of Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, where the puzzle is the main focus of the story. From Sloan’s introduction in 1966 to the present, the characters haven’t changed noticeably, although technology has crept into the story lines.

Sloan’s sidekick is an inept constable named Crosby. Crosby hasn’t learned much since joining the force despite Sloan’s patient coaching. His primary interest is fast cars and his career goal is to join the Traffic department in the Beresbury police force, which has steadfastly declined to have him. They both report to Superintendent Leeyes, who is irritable and often unreasonable. Leeyes attends many of the local Adult Education classes and is prone to quoting odd bits of information from the latest class.

In Past Tense (Minotaur, 2011) Sloan’s twenty-second full-length adventure, he’s mulling over a break-in at a long-term care center where the only loss seems to be a broken vase. The resident of the room recently died, leaving nothing much, so why anyone would bother is curious. Then her grave is disturbed, bringing the police to ask around about a woman who apparently died without friends or family. Sloan has to abandon this question to begin a far more serious case, that of the death of a young woman found in the river. What first appeared to be a suicide quickly changed to homicide. The lack of identity was resolved when a nurse at the local hospital was reported missing. In tracking the nurse’s movements, Sloan found they intersected at one point with those of the dead woman’s whose room was broken into, which folds the two separate investigations into one big one.

Nicely clued, entertaining dialogue, solid plot with several diverting secondary threads. A reader who is watching carefully will pick up a major hint early on. The lawyer and his staff who crop up now and again in this series are great.

Starred review from Publishers Weekly.

·                     File Size : 334 KB

·                     Publication Date : March 1, 2011

·                     Print Length : 288 pages

·                     Publisher : Minotaur Books (March 1, 2011)

·                     ASIN : B00457X7Z4

  

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Happiness Is A Warm Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

Happiness Is A Warm Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: A Dead Liberty by Catherine Aird

A Dead Liberty by Catherine Aird (Collins, 1986) is the 12^th book in the long-running British detective series featuring Inspector Christopher Dennis Sloan of the fictional Berebury CID department in West Calleshire, England. Known as “C.D.” which invariably is pronounced “Seedy”, Sloan is generally accompanied by a clueless constable named Crosby. Sloan reports to Superintendent Leeyes, who is irritable and often demanding. He frequents the local Adult Education classes and is prone to quoting odd bits of information from the latest class that may or may not be relevant to the subject at hand. 

In this outing what should have been an open-and-shut case turned out to be anything but. Lucy Durmast was accused of poisoning an employee of her father’s. He had just become engaged to his hometown girlfriend and jealousy was thought to be the motive for the murder. The meal she prepared for him was the only food he’d taken that day that wasn’t shared with others, making her the obvious and sole suspect. The first indication that things would not go as expected was when Lucy refused to speak at her arrest and interrogation. She declined to talk when the judge asked for her plea, and she wouldn’t say a word when she was consequently imprisoned for contempt of court. She politely listened to everything said to her but she would not respond. This extraordinary behavior puzzled and worried everyone, including her friends, the police, the prosecutor, and the judge.

Then the original investigating officer was injured in an accident and Inspector Sloan was assigned to wrap the case up for the prosecutor to present at trial. When the college friend of the victim disappeared and another person known to the accused was killed, Inspector Sloan started from the beginning and conducted a brand-new investigation to get to the bottom of a situation that everyone was beginning to see was not what it appeared to be.

Catherine Aird, who won the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger Award in 2015, has been on my TBR list for years. Through Open Media’s Early Bird Books list of discounted Kindle titles I acquired three that I read in short order. While observing the conventions of the classic British detective story, Aird delivers original characters and innovative plots via immensely readable narratives.  I did not guess the perpetrator or the motive in any of the three, which is always a plus for me. These books are not long, they seem to run less than 250 pages, an advantage for anyone who binge reads and a big change from the current tendency toward doorstopper tomes. I am looking forward to finding the rest of the books in the series and reading them as fast as possible.

• ISBN-13: 9780002314978
• ISBN: 0002314975
• Print Length: 216 pages
• Publisher: Collins Crime Club
• Publication Date: 27 May 1986
• Book Type: Hardcover

Aubrey Hamilton © 2017
 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Via SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: Catherine Aird - 2015 Diamond Dagger AWard

SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: Catherine Aird - 2015 Diamond Dagger AWard: The Crime Writer’s Association is delighted to announce that the recipient of this year’s prestigious Diamond Dagger is Catherine Aird. ...

FFB Review: "The Religious Body" by Catherine Aird-- Reviewed by Patrick Ohl

Patrick Ohl is back this week for Friday Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. This week he is reviewing The Religious Body by Catherine Aird.

I made my first acquaintance with Catherine Aird by reading His Burial Too. Although I expressed genuine enthusiasm for the locked-room situation and its resolution (which contains a very good trick at its core), I thought the book suffered from a poor sense of pacing, with a second act that dragged interminably on as the detectives investigated trails that were all-too-obviously dead ends. I had hopes that The Religious Body would be an improvement— the plot sounded like a riot and Aird showed an excellent sense of humour that could make such a story enjoyable. The result was not quite what I expected, though…

The Religious Body opens in the Convent of St. Anselm. One of the nuns, Sister Anne, is nowhere to be found, until somebody stumbles over her body at the foot of the cellar stairs. C. D. Sloan arrives with Constable Crosby in tow to investigate, and he decides that all this just doesn’t add up. Eventually, he decides Sister Anne was murdered, and begins to try finding the killer.

The plot begins promisingly and carries through on its promise for about half the book. We even see a priest get sucked into the action, doing some amateur sleuthing and giving the coppers some tips here and there. Unfortunately, at about the halfway mark, Aird seems to lose interest in the book. The central fascination I have with the idea of murder in a convent is that fundamental paradox. Convents are not places of violence— they are places of peace, and you’d expect a nun to be the last person in the world to actually kill one of her fellow nuns. Aird unfortunately bails out on this angle, introducing the usual, unoriginal, and unexciting motives. (Curiously enough, the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation really jumped the shark for me in a similar episode, where a woman is discovered murdered in a Catholic church, having been crucified. The promising beginning fell apart into a dismal drama involving a priest’s affair with the dead woman, and it permanently turned me off the show.)

This book’s pacing is a general improvement on His Burial Too (although it was written first)— the plot does move a lot quicker. However, the plot itself is extremely problematic. One of the main points that leads Sloan to conclude Sister Anne was murdered is a lack of blood on the cellar steps, which meant the blood clotted and dried somewhere else and thus didn’t fall to the cellar floor when the body was dumped there. At the same time, Aird makes a serious goof by having a major plot thread about one of the nuns getting a bloody thumb-mark, presumably from the un-findable murder weapon. If the blood from the corpse has had enough time to clot, why in heaven’s name would this nun get wet blood on her thumb to make a bloody thumb-mark in a book? (As for the un-findable murder weapon, it’s really a dull and anticlimactic revelation that wasn’t worth the trouble. I’m surprised the cops didn’t find it sooner.)

Another major angle involves a group of agricultural students who study next door to the convent. On Guy Fawkes Night, the day after the murder, they burn an effigy of a nun as a practical joke, but the police are informed of this and arrive to douse the flames—only to discover the effigy is wearing a habit that is missing from the convent and is wearing the dead nun’s glasses! This leads to a predictable second murder, but the motive for this second murder is positively laughable and quite vague at the same time. “I can’t be certain of this, sir,” Sloan might as well have apologetically reported to his superior, “but I believe Thomson murdered Thompson because he recognized him that night in the dark, since he hadn’t brushed his teeth.”

The solution, when it finally does arrive, has elements of cleverness to it, but the holes in the story stand out a lot more, which is a genuine shame since the pacing of the book is overall better than that of His Burial Too. Aird shows genuine wit, which makes the book fun enough to follow. Unfortunately, I really can’t recommend the book. It has tremendous promise but really falls completely flat.

Patrick Ohl ©2014

At The Scene Of the Crime