TROUBLED MIDNIGHT

The further amatory and ratiocinative adventures of DS Suzie Mountford.

August 1943. The war may have finally turned a corner, though few are confident enough to say that aloud. Craving distraction, Suzie (Angels Dining at the Ritz, 2004, etc.) and her boss/lover Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Livermore have snatched a weekend away for what Dandy Tom calls a “frivol.” Little do they imagine that in six months they’ll be returning to the tiny Berkshire town of Wantage when Scotland Yard is called in to investigate a double homicide. Lt. Col. Tim Weaving had been commanding officer of a glider regiment based near Wantage. Bunny Bascombe had been the wife of a much decorated war hero. Both have been murdered with extreme brutality and their bodies left in the Bascombe family mansion. DCS Livermore at first favors the disenchanted spouse as principal suspect. In this case, however, Captain Bascombe seems in possession of an iron-clad alibi: He’s a POW somewhere in Europe. As for Suzie’s take on the murders, she’s sleuthing less singlemindedly these days because suddenly there’s this other chap, and Suzie “fancies him rotten.” And when you get down to bedrock—cracking a case or disentangling a romance—Suzie makes it clear that relationships trump homicides.

Suzie’s probably right. Forget the cheesecloth plotting; it’s saucy, sexy, ever-susceptible Suzie who carries the day.