“The Quayside Murder” by Roy Lewis

Attorney Eric Ward has been offered an assignment he likely can’t turn down – serving as a representative for a businessman looking to expand his operations in England’s northeast. As of the moment, Ward is recovering from the glaucoma surgery that may or may not work; against the adamant protest of the young woman he’s in love with (and who’s caring for him), he travels to London to see what the job offer is about. 

After his meeting, he’s on stairs near the train station, when he stumbles, or someone stumbles against him, or he’s pushed. Fortunately, a doctor is nearby. He’s able to resume his journey home, where he’s promptly reprimanded by the girlfriend.

Slowly he begins to learn that the businessman may be on the unscrupulous side, throwing his weight against the man who operates extensive criminal activities in the region. Ward reaches out to an old copper – Ward was on the police force before his glaucoma developed – to help his investigation.

And then things really begin to go awry, including a murder.

Roy Lewis

The Quayside Murder by Roy Lewis, set and originally published in the early 1980s, is the fourth in the Eric Ward mystery series, and it possesses enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing for almost the whole story. It includes a romance theme that also keeps the reader guessing – will Ward get over his eyesight problem and his concern about seeing a much younger girlfriend and finally get married?

Lewis is the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. The Arnold Landon series is comprised of 22 novels. Lewis lives in northern England. 

The Quayside Murder is another solid mystery in the Eric Ward series. It’s already become one of my favorite mystery series.

Related:

The Sedleigh Hall Murder by Roy Lewis.

A Cotswolds Murder by Roy Lewis.

The Farming Murder by Roy Lewis.