The body of a real estate agent is found in the yard of a small hotel property she recently purchased. She’s dressed and mounted like a scarecrow. The person who finds her is the security man she hired to install monitoring devices for public areas. He calls in the grisly discovery, but he does so anonymously. He’ll say later that it was because he didn’t want to get involved; it may more a case of wanting to avoid the police himself.
But he’s traced using hone records, and he cheerfully enough tells the police what they want to know. He’s willing to help, at least until his body is found.
Retired DCI James Munro, who still manages to get involved in ongoing cases, finds himself helping an investigating officer who has no experience with murder. Then his own former team is assigned the case, and James finds himself right in the thick of things. And thick it is – a past involving real estate dealings, a Lexus that seems abandoned and then disappears, a suspect who doesn’t want to say what she knows, at least all at once, shifting identities, and fast-paced plot developments that you better read closely.
 |
| Pete Brassett |
Penury is the 12th Munro and West novel by Scottish writer Pete Brassett, and it is as well-plotted, entertaining, and often downright funny as its predecessors. Brassett had a gift for comic dialogue (even with an overtone of Scottish dialect) between the police officers that helps to relieve tension. It’s difficult to think of another mystery writer with this kind of comic talent.
Brassett, a native Scot, has published 13 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles. His first novel was Clam Chowder at Lafayette and Spring, followed by three independent crime novels – Kiss the Girls, Prayer for the Dying, and The Girl from Kilkenny, in which he dealt with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, religious scandal, and manic depression.
With Munro and West, Brassett came into his own, and the series is one of the most enjoyable I’ve read. I have only one more to go, and I hope Mr. Brassett is hard at work on No. 14.
Related:
Some Thursday Readings
“In the Mountains on a Summer Day,” Poem by Li Po – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Scattered Thoughts – poem by Seth Lewis.
Ansel Adams, AI, and the Essence of Creation – Alan Noble at You Are Not Your Own.
No comments:
Post a Comment