Last Respects

Catherine Aird's C. D. Sloane series has always been a pleasant, cozy read and Last respects is no different. The body of a young man is found floating in the sea just outside a river without identification. Although he has been in the water a long time, he has not drowned and Sloan must find out just where he was killed and who he is. At the same time, mysterious artifacts from a 200-year-old shipwreck begin surfacing, one of which comes from the pocket of the dead man. There was a lot more about tides and currents than I was interested in, but there is one absolutely hilarious scene involving identifying a marine creature that made the whole book for me. The solution becomes obvious too soon, but on the whole it was a pleasant read.

I can't remember the last time I had the murder pegged so early. An enjoyable journey with a good narrator. I was glad to have the Kindle edition as well because there were so many literary references. Some I knew but others I needed to track down. Some understandable others I didn't quite catch during the narration. Not a very surprising ending. I thought more highly of the last one of Ms Aird's that I read.

Not the best of her books, but still very good. A great opening line--

"The man wasn't alive and well and living in Paris." In fact, he wasn't alive at all. He was floating face down in the river.

I enjoyed the book. It was one of her funniest ones yet. But I did guess the murderer and the motive (mostly) too far before the end, and that made it not quite as good as some of the others where I was really baffled up until the end.

Last Respects is the tenth in the series featuring Inspector CD Sloan. I have to tell you that it is the best one since book #2, Henrietta Who -- it totally flows as a good mystery should. Nothing abrupt about the ending of this one, and there are a lot of very nice red herrings to take you totally off track. Having said this, a brief plot review with no spoilers:

In the small village of Edsway, a local man out in his boat on the river sees a body floating. The police, naturally, are called in to investigate, and the pathologist, Dr. Dabbe, determines that the man wasn't drowned after all. But trying to figure out not only who he was and what happened to him is the least of Sloan's problems -- murder, it seems, is still afoot.

As noted, show more much better flow in the mystery and its denouement. I would most definitely recommend this one both to British mystery readers and those who read police procedurals. If you're considering trying Catherine Aird's books, start with number one and work your way through -- you'll miss a great deal as far as character development goes if you do not. show less

Lovely little British mystery with lots of local 'colour'! Catherine Aird's series of books starring PC C.D. Sloan is a gem. In "Last Respects" Sloan is at first perplexed by an unidentified corpse who was found in water...but had been dead much longer than it appeared. With a full cast of characters drawn from the typical British countryside, it will take all Sloan's detecting skills, despite the 'aid' of his sidekick Crosby, and knowledge of tides, sheep-shearing, and municipal building projects to solve this case.

If you're not familiar with British English, you may want to read this with access to an OED! But Aird does a great job of capturing English country life and character wrapped in clever little mysteries.

Moves right along. A little drama at the end. A good classic mystery.