Another great Dover. This one finds Dover in backwater up country town investigating the death of a local spinster. She was shot outside the church, left for dead and then finally killed 12 months later in the hospital (in a coma) by... someone close to her. Dover resolves on multiple candidates for the killing going all out trying to browbeat out of them before gracelessly retreating and starting over. ( )

Dover Two is the second in a mystery series from the Sixties that is being republished for a new generation of readers. DCI Dover does not represent the best of Scotland Yard. Dover is played for laughs, a fat, lazy, and filthy detective who hates to walk and hates to work. However, he does have a few intuitive flashes that help bring the intricate plot to a resolution, though sometimes as much by accident as by detection.

When the woman known as the Sleeping Beauty is smothered after nearly a year in a coma after being shot in the head, Dover is dispatched to Curdley to solve the case. Curdley is a very sectarian village about half and half Catholic and Protestant. The victim was Protestant and her sister is convinced the Catholic police did not do their best to solve the case…and that may be true. Dover and his long-suffering Sergeant MacGregor quickly made discoveries that should have been made long before.

I enjoyed Dover Two quite a bit, especially as leavening from more serious books I have been reading. It’s a light mystery. While the shooting happens on a public street, there is an element of the locked-room mystery here. There are witnesses to the left, right, and center, so how did the shooter escape unseen? Or is one of the witnesses the shooter? Dover has an uncanny pleasure in accusing everyone and hoping they will confess. How well that works is a matter of good and bad luck.

Dover is an enjoyable detective, not just due to the humor of this unappealing and lazy DCI and his poor sergeant, but also thanks to the few flashes of intuition and real problem-solving he accomplishes. Those moments of competence balance him enough to make the story worthy.

I received an e-galley of Dover Two from the publisher through NetGalley.

Dover Two at Farrago Books | Duckworth Books Group

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/10/25/9781788422055/ ( )

Dover Two is even better than Dover One.

Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover is back in Dover Two, as slovenly, crude, rude, lazy and unlikable as ever. His assistant Detective Sergeant Charles Edgar MacGregor is back, too. Ambitious, long-suffering, full of good detecting strategies that usually get ignored or stolen by Dover, definitely not happy to be stuck paired with his Chief. As we get to know Sergeant MacGregor a little better, though, we see that he is a bit of a prig and a prude and not always that likable either. This time the pair is investigating a death in the village of Curdley. The victim wasn’t particularly likable, and the villagers are the usual assembly of weird, sneaky characters with many secrets. It’s not even a nice village; Curdley takes the animosity between Protestant and Catholics to a new level.

So with all this unlikable-ness how could I possibly like this book? Well, read it and I think you’ll agree with me. It is a strong British police procedural, with compelling, complicated characters and a well-developed plot full of clues and red herrings and surprises. I had no idea who the murderer was until just before it was revealed and the ending was totally satisfying. Although it appears that Dover is just bumbling along, fighting or taking credit for MacGregor’s ideas every step of the way, there is a lot of solid detective work hidden in there. It is a pleasure to watch things unfold and try to stay a step ahead of author Joyce Porter.

As always, Farrago Press has a knack for finding these old series from the 1950’s and 1960’s that are full of the most delicious use of words and the mental pictures they bring to mind. How can you resist something like, “There was a clock right opposite him on the dining room wall but Dover didn’t believe in keeping a dog and barking himself.”

Once again, many thanks to the folks at Farrago Books for finding another great series and allowing me the opportunity to read, review, and thoroughly enjoy it. I can’t wait to get started on Dover Three. ( )

Very funny book about the solving of a murder by the appalling detective Wilfred Dover and his smooth sidekick. Includes a nice portrait of a provincial town. ( )

When a comatose young woman is suffocated 8 months after she is shot twice in the head, Scotland Yard sends Wilfred Dover, its worst detective, to blunder his way to (amazingly) the right solution. Terrific fun. ( )