Customer Reviews

Suspicious Death

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This is the eighth in a series of mysteries set in Kent, England, and featuring the detective work of Inspector Luke Thanet. In this book, when a successful business woman is found drowned in the local river, the police are called in. There is no clear evidence that the woman was murdered, but to Inspector Thanet this is definitely a suspicious death. A lot of people had the motive to kill the woman, but who had the opportunity? This is a strange case, one that will tax Inspector Thanet to his limit!

As with the other Dorothy Simpson books I have read, this one has a fiendishly complicated plot. It's quite unclear what happened and why, and it will keep you guessing right up to the finale, as you try to figure out who did it. This is another excellent English mystery, one that I highly enjoyed, and highly recommend to you!

This is the 8th adventure of Detective Inspector Luke Thanet and Sgt. Mike Lineham in Kent, England. Our two heroes are dedicated coppers, tackling one crime at a time, interviewing suspects and then pooling their knowledge to solve the case. Both are married with children and there's usually a "family crisis" for one or both of them, juggled in the background while the two go about sleuthing. Simpson's books are classic British "cozys", with excellent character development and usually a fairly intriguing mystery.

The book opens with what is becoming a recurring theme in this series - Sgt. Lineham duly pointing this out to Thanet and the reader - yet another suspicious death of a woman in town, which could be the result of an accident, suicide or murder. The victim, who grew up in the area and then moved on, had recently returned as a married and very successful businesswoman - and buying the biggest house in town. As our two heroes investigate, it soon becomes apparent that the ambitious and high-powered victim had stepped on more than a few local toes since her return - supplying more than a few suspects - if in fact she was murdered.

True to form there is a very well developed cast of secondary characters, whom Thanet and Lineham interview and weigh as suspects. Unfortunately the "mystery" in Suspicious Death is weak - particularly with the discovery of all the relevant clues, "uncovered" late in the book, which provides the then cookie-cutter, convenient and obvious solution.

There is a very formulaic feel to this book - clue, red herring; clue, red herring - that both our protagonists verbalize, literally saying out loud several times, "This is where in a mystery detective novel ....." And there is also a very intrusive Thanet neighbor - one of the "domestic/family crises" - that is so blatantly out of place, the reader quickly understands this has more than a little something to do with the case.

Suspicious Death has an interesting set of characters contained in a somewhat engaging small-town tale, which unfortunately never gains traction as a mystery.