I couldn’t stand it. I planned to resist reading the most recently published Munro & West mystery by Pete Brassett, but it’s been sitting there, calling my name. I thought I could hold off until the next one (if there is a next one) is published. But I was wrong.
Just as a test, I started reading the prologue. That’s all it took. I was hooked.
Ruse by Pete Brassett is the 13th (and most recent) of the Munro & West mysteries featuring Detective Inspector Charlotte West and retired DI James Munro. West’s team is called in to investigate the death of a young woman at a local pub. She was a barmaid, and her body was found in a stall in the women’s bathroom.
The team at first thinks it was robbery gone wrong; the woman’s purse is found closely nearby. But there are too many unanswered questions. It’s only gradually that the team determines that what looked like robbery is actually murder.
Complicating the case is a series of what appear to be unrelated robberies. Luxury item shops are being robbed, with the owners waking up on the floor of the shops and only remembering paramedics in the area. But there are too many new clues, too many dead ends, and too many potential suspects, and what does that have to do with the murder investigation, anyway? And then James Munro does what he does best – he begins to connect the dots.
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| Pete Brassett |
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.
Ruse is an attractive addition to the collection of its predecessors. It has the same kind of police office banter that are a hallmark of the earlier stories, and the same role of Munro taking on the job of mentor and sometimes active mentor.
But this will be one mightily disappointed reader if No. 14 isn’t in the works. Ruse was published in 2022, and Brassett has no author website. I wonder if a petition drive for a new story would help.
Related:
Some Wednesday Readings
A publishing submission Bill of Rights – Nathan Bransford.
How to Heal Our Country? Love Your Enemies – Arthur Brooks at The Free Press.
My Senate Testimony on Surveillance and Not Only Tulsi: Three Members of Congress Spied On in Quiet Skies Program– Matt Taibbi at Rack News.
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