Jon Morgan is a retired police Superintendent and francophile who, it is said, has consequently seen almost everything awful that people can do to each other. He relishes quality writing in all genres but advises particularly on police procedure for authors including John Harvey and Jon McGregor. Haunts bookshops both new and secondhand and stands with Erasmus: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I may buy food and clothes.”
A new book by Rennie Airth, and especially one in the John Madden series, which ranges from the First World War and now takes us into the 1950’s, is always a very welcome addition and this one does not disappoint.
Many of the Scotland Yard detectives featured early in the series are enjoying a well-earned retirement. Others, more junior when the books started, are now advancing through the ranks, including a highly able Woman Detective Sergeant.
Former Detective Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair is drawn into what appears to be an accidental death of a German-born church organist in a small village near Winchester. Having come to England before the War as a refugee from Nazi persecution, she was not initially welcomed and her benefactor, and some-time protector, is suspicious and angry about her death.
Sinclair, although quite ill, begins to unpick the circumstances of her death in a private capacity. His entirely unauthorised foray back into the sleuthing world leads him to an old friend and colleague from the West German police and to brutal crimes committed in Germany and South America by an unprincipled psychopath and master of disguise.
Old colleagues and former subordinates from Scotland Yard are on hand. Willing, given their loyalty to their former bosses, to help him and Madden beyond the call of duty. Suspects are multiple and some wholly unsuspected. The outcome is predictably unpredictable.
Intelligently written, meticulously researched and absolutely reeking of the crime fiction of the Golden Age and all the more welcome because of it. Happily the Series MM Morris Minor from early books is also still going!
A thoroughly enjoyable read and a tinge of regret when finished, that there will be a wait for another one. Still I can always re-read the series from the beginning. I urge you to do the same.
