Clues from the past

Puzzle fans, take note: the fifth book in Robert Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club series is a successful addition, with never a “cross” word among the trio of amateur sleuths.

This time out, the crossword setting and solving brains of the outfit, the live-alone mysterious Judith Potts of the book’s title, has the spotlight turned on her past life.

If the book’s title has an echo, it’s a nod to the great mystery puzzle setter, Agatha Christie, without any direct reference in this outing.

As for the other two who make up the three-headed civilian sleuth, Becks continues to be the source of decorum and compassion, as befits a vicar’s wife, while dog walker Suzie is bluff and blunt in her assessment of possible suspects.

And there are suspects aplenty as two famous Marlow residents are shot to death, with no immediate connecting link discovered. Indeed, there are nine possible suspects to keep track of.

Normally the threesome would get a grudging acknowledgment from the official police force and help and support from Det. Insp. Tanika Malik, but she has been sidelined by the ambitious and devious Det. Sgt. Brendan Perry.

Working on their own, the trio confronts the suspects one at a time, and with each new nugget of information, contradiction or outright lie, the results are posted on reluctant Judith’s case wall with connecting suspects indicated by bits of stretched thread.

Judith’s unusual hesitation is brought on by the unexpected appearance at her front door of a fiery young Greek woman who announces “You killed my father.” It’s not surprising, then, that this sends Judith down memory lane and creates some confusion concerning her time (and marriage) in Corfu.

The tension mounts when, “as only Judith had known for the past forty-nine years, it had been a lie.”

Will Judith be able to convince the police forces of two countries of her innocence — especially since her behaviour suggests she does bear some responsibility for her husband’s untimely death, and her friends have to confront the possibility of her guilt?

Both cases rattle along at a non-stop pace, although the scenes featuring our sleuths pursuing a suspect through some dark and dank tunnels under a Victorian estate read like a passage from a Nancy Drew mystery novel for a younger audience.

Like the much beloved British soap opera, Coronation Street, there isn’t a male character worth a pinch of salt, and the author delights in having the rich and famous of Marlow brought low by their hypocrisy and scandalous behaviour.

Among the current fad for older civilian sleuths, the Marlow trio offers a cosier version than the edgier (and older) Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman.

Success breeds success, and the ending suggests there will be another in the series. And it’s not surprising some passages read as if they were written for television, considering the author’s writing credentials and the continued success of this series on TV.

Ron Robinson agrees this was a “three pipe problem.”