DEATH IN FINE CONDITION
by Andrew Cartmel
A voracious and felonious appetite for paperback books gets a resourceful young woman into all kinds of trouble.
A brief prologue introduces Cordelia Stanmer with a dead man at her feet, a scene straight out of James M. Cain and the first of the many noir fiction references with which her story is packed. Just a few weeks earlier, she’s indulging her passion for softcover books, which she can resell at an astronomical price after forging the author’s name inside. Cordelia’s not above indulging in burglary to feed her paperback habit. Edwin, her laid-back landlord, helps her stay afloat with the occasional loan and with weed. Cordelia’s no-account elder brother, Stuart, also known as Stinky, pops in unannounced from time to time to complicate her life further. What she covets most are a series of vintage crime novels under the Sleuth Hound imprint. When Cordelia spots a collection of them in a photograph, she devises a daring and totally illegal plan to obtain them. But the biggest score of all is the cache of Sleuth Hound books she spots in a bag held by mild-mannered Colin Cutterham. Fortunately for her, the man is not only a voracious collector of Sleuth Hound titles, but also a creature of habit. Cordelia undertakes a serious surveillance mission in anticipation of a big score. What could possibly go wrong? Cartmel brings the same insouciance and offbeat charm to this series kickoff as to his long-running Vinyl Detective series.
A quirky crime yarn bound to hit the sweet spot for mystery lovers.