Murder In Piccadilly: A British Library Crime Classic
Charles Kingston
Poisoned Pen Press, May 5 2015, $12.95
ISBN: 9781464203732
Fearfully Ruby Cheldon tells her snooty brother
Massy that her son Bobbie fell in love with and proposed to Nancy Curzon, a
dancer in a nightclub. Disgusted with both
of his family members, Massy lectures Ruby and his nephew that the latter
should bring in income to supplement what his arrogant uncle provides to them (along
with her pension) rather than spend it in nightclubs on floozies.
Not long after this family fiasco, someone
murders Massy. Scotland Yard Chief
Inspector Wake leads the investigation into the homicide of an extremely
unpopular snob. Aware that as the
spoiled heir to Massy’s vast estate Bobbie has the motive to kill his
disagreeable uncle; Wake predominantly focuses on him as the only viable
suspect though also to a much lesser degree considers Ruby and Nancy.
Murder In Piccadilly is an entertaining Great Depression era police
procedural. The leisurely-paced period
piece takes a long time to set the stage due to a vivid depiction of 1930s
London and an emphasis on the fractured interrelationships between the present and
future Cheldon. Once the homicide occurs
and the CI takes over the plot, Charles Kingston’s whodunit turns into an
absorbing murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
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