Bruce Beckham

Another fairly complex plot, with a bit thrown in about Skelgill's favourite past-time, fly fishing, and quite a lot of British historical information.

There are references to a Christie-like plot with a murder taking place at a remote ancestral estate, blocked in by snow, and Skelgill arriving by helicopter.

As usual, just when you think you have this puzzle solved, you realise two things: 1) that you are only half way through the book and so what is going to occupy us for the rest of the text; and 2) the author has just thrown another line of investigation in, and are we going to have to go overr everything again?

I must admit that the final solution was not one I had seen.

A good series: but take the trouble to start from the very beginning!… (más)

Another outing with Detective Inspector Daniel Skelgill, and another where you learn just a little more about him.

Skelgill agrees to give a prize at the police charity auction of a weekend's fishing which will involve the hooking of a thirty pound pike. The winner is a psychologist at the maximum security prison where he is investigating the theft of some stores. His investigation has already brought him into contact with a convicted serial killer, a former nurse convicted of poisoning a number of patients. And then he discovers some of the others in responsible positions at the facility are not quite squeaky clean either.

I'm enjoying the varied plots in these not-quite-cozies.… (más)

Here I've hit on a series that I am really enjoying. Out fishing for a monster pike (to win a wager) Skelgill comes across a group at a writer's retreat where one of their number has died. The plot smacks a little of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, a small group of people invited to a secluded island, with no communication with the mainland, host elusive or unknown, and the first of their number killed, and maybe another lined up.

Unable to contact the police, Skelgill decides to spend the night with them, and by the morning another is dead. Back on the mainland Skelgill and his team investigate the connections between the guests and come up with some surprising answers.

The plotting is well done, and Skelgill and his team are well drawn.… (más)