Erich Brown, Murder by the Book (2013).
Good Reads meta-data is 224 pages rated 3.63 by 369 litizens.
Genre: Krimi; Sub-species: Period piece.
DNA: Brit.
Verdict: More!
Tagline: That old trope again.
Hero writes murder mysteries in 1955 London. A demobbed soldier he tried investigative work immediately after the war with an army buddy but soon found writing about crime was easier and paid better than dealing with it, or dealing with wayward husbands or wives. In fact he found that he was good at writing and enjoyed it. Now forty years old and unattached (his wife was killed in the Blitz) he is as unsure with women as a pimply teen. Hard to credit that but there it is.
Then his agent needs some investigative work and some muscle applied and Hero enlists himself and his contacts from his own days on the street. What seems to be blackmail at first turns out to be far worse when the bodies start falling, and the way they fall.
The suicides, accidental deaths, and natural deaths of a series of British crime writers just like Hero prove to be murders. Moreover, a closer examination of each case reveals them to be bizarre and contrived. Then the murders become more explicit, and Hero realises there is something familiar about a couple of them.
Spoiler ahead! Read on only with your eyes closed.
Someone is murdering them in a manner described in their novels!
***
The characterisations of the several authors is delightful, and varied from aristocratic hauteur to wealthy bon vivant to deadpan drone to Cockney bantam and several steps between.
London 1955 is a faint background, but it is very credible, even if everyone drives a car and finds a parking place.
Warning though, I found the pace slow, very, but I kept going because it was so well done. I also found Hero’s hesitation and confusion about Marie Dupré artificial and likewise her patience with him. He had been married and survived combat. Surely he would have more salt, while she must have had many suitors. Still together they make a likeable duo. I will certainly read another in the series of nine. Later: Mission accomplished. Read all nine.
Murder at the Chase, Murder at the Loch, Murder Takes Three, Murder Takes A Turn, Murder Served Cold. Murder by the Numbers, Murder at the Standing Stone, and Murder Most Vile.
The late Eric Brown was one of those one-man industries with a list of books so long I grew weary reading it. He published about sixty novels, 150 short stories, and another trove of chapters in anthologies.