Dying Fall

December 1, 2021
An anonymous phone tip sends DCI Bill Slider to a well-hidden house in Shepherd's Bush harboring a host of even better-hidden secrets. A woman eventually identified as Prudence Chadacre, nee Kate Armstrong, a secretary at the Historic Buildings National Drawings Archive, has taken a fatal tumble down the stairs inside Dunkirk House--except that she hasn't; there are clear signs that she was beaten to death and her fall never happened. The victim was so quiet, solitary, and withdrawn from the world that it's no easy matter to generate a list of suspects, let alone figure out which of them might have had a motive for killing her. From almost the beginning of Slider's inquiries, the most promising lead seems to be the death of Prue's mother, Sandra May Chadacre, who drowned in her bath in the same house 20 years ago. The earlier death was discovered by Sandra's son, Philip Armstrong, who's clearly a person of interest now that his sister has died as well. And when at last Philip turns up, his artless confession--"I killed my sister, and it makes you tired, killing people"--bids fair to close the case. But Slider and his team aren't ready to stop considering Magnus Armstrong, Sandra's ex-husband, now a wealthy, powerful developer planning a run for Parliament, or Tony Scrimgeour, the handsome young man who managed the rare feat of insinuating himself into Prue's good graces before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Steady, unspectacular, expertly paced work from all hands, with a particularly satisfying payoff.

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December 1, 2021
An anonymous caller reports a woman has fallen down the stairs at a seemingly deserted mansion, Dunkirk House. When London DCI Bill Slider and his sidekick, Atherton, arrive at the scene, they find a dead woman, with all signs clearly indicating she was murdered. But who was she? There are no clues in the house, and her handbag is missing. Initially, Slider is stymied and makes little progress. Slider's superior, the malaprop-spouting Porson, informs him that the higher-ups want the case solved quickly; either that or it will be closed. So begins a hard slog for Slider and his team, leading them at least to identifying the victim. Then a relative of the victim sheds light on possible motives for the murder. Harrod-Eagles' long-running series--this is the twenty-third installment--again displays a firm grasp of procedural tradecraft, portraying a team of dedicated investigators slowly building a case. Throw in Harrod-Eagles' trademark humor and an unerring ability to build characters, and the result is another satisfying mystery starring one of Britain's most engaging coppers.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 20, 2021
At the start of Harrod-Eagles’s solid 23rd mystery featuring London Det. Chief Insp. Bill Slider (after 2020’s Cruel as the Grave), Slider and longtime sidekick Det. Sgt. Jim Atherton are dispatched to a home after an anonymous caller reported spotting a body inside at the foot of a staircase. The shoes of the deceased, a 30-something woman, are on different steps, suggesting an accidental trip on a hole in the carpet at the top. But the massive head wound suggests that a murderer staged the scene. After the victim’s identified as Prue Chadacre, a secretary at the Historic Buildings National Drawings Archive, the plot thickens, as Slider and Atherton learn that Chadacre changed her birth name—and that the place she died was the site of another supposedly fatal accident decades earlier. Slider, who never met a pun he didn’t like (he complains that he’d expected the film Dunkirk “was going to be William Shatner’s autobiography”), and who’s a devoted family man, is a refreshing alternative to the dour leads of many police procedurals. Fans of Catherine Aird’s witty Inspector C.D. Sloan books will be hooked.

January 1, 2022

There's a dead woman at the foot of the stairs in the shabby Dunkirk House. PC D'Arblay responds to an anonymous phone call, but something looks off to him. Chief Inspector Bill Slider's team is called. The woman was hit on the head, and someone tried to set the scene to make it look like she fell down the stairs. The police have an unidentified victim with no purse. While Slider and his officers investigate, one of the desk sergeants mentions that a woman died in that same house 20 years earlier, in a case that was not properly investigated. Politically, Slider should have let this case go as an accidental death, but as the search reveals people using other names, including the victim, he becomes intrigued. The victim is the daughter of the woman who died previously in the same house; her brother is missing; and her father, who claims he hasn't seen her in 20 years, is now running for a seat in Parliament. Dunkirk House has seen its share of secrets, and Slider's team will uncover the ones that led to murder. VERDICT The follow-up to Cruel as the Grave takes murder seriously while handling the police procedural with humor and puns.--Lesa Holstine

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