This Private Plot- Alan Beechey

This Private Plot Alan Beechey Poisoned Pen, May 6 2014, $24.95 ISBN: 9781464202407 In Synne, children’s author of Finsbury the Ferret as O.C. Blithely, Oliver Swithin chases after his girlfriend police Detective Effie Strongitharm in a very public place including the village maze while both are naked except for his used hanky. Their sojourn is interrupted when his maternal Aunt Phoebe and her husband Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Directorate Detective Superintendent Tim Mallard arrive in the same state of garb. Oliver’s brother Toby set up both couples, but he did not include the fifth wheel as the writer finds the corpse of one time popular but retired children’s radio star “Uncle” Dennis Breedlove. Whereas the local constables and Tim lean towards a suicide; the latter focuses more on the Theydon Bois Thespians amateur acting group performance of Hamlet than the case. Oliver disagrees believing Uncle Dennis was murdered. Though ordered by Tim to stay out of the investigation, Oliver and Effie make inquiries. The latest Oliver Swithin whodunit (see Embarrassment of Corpses and Murdering Ministers) is a great English village mystery that effortlessly combines humor and tension. Filled with twists (including personal) and red herrings, readers will appreciate this fabulous amateur sleuth as blackmail, murder and the banana theory of man (proving Thomas Carlyle’s Philosophy of Clothing, or lack of) make for a super read. Harriet Klausner