A COMPLETE STATE OF DEATH
by John E. Gardner
A (to some) welcome change from that benign bumbler Boysie Oakes in Detective Inspector Torry, a "professional idealist" with a hairshirt conscience now assigned to a whole network of criminal activities generated by an unknown Wexton. One (Jamaican) Wexton is a necrophiliac who boffs dead bodies; a second one throws himself out of the window; a third throws herself at Torry; then there's her father, a Tory politician. Assorted casualties fulfill the title while also keeping the reader in a complete state of attention. Firm.