His Burial Too

by Catherine Aird

Paper Book, 1973

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

London: Collins, 1973.

Description

In this crime novel by CWA Diamond Dagger winner Catherine Aird, Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan returns to solve a locked-room mystery, but he's thrown for a loop when a prominent industrialist turns up dead On the hottest day in living memory, Richard Mallory Tindall, the owner of a patent firm, does not return home to Cleete village. When a man is found crushed to death, Tindall's case goes from missing person to homicide. In the course of solving murder cases, Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan has seen all manner of ugly death. But there's something particularly gruesome about this one, the body crushed beneath the marble and iron of an old Saxon church tower. With rubble blocking off access to the crime scene, no one can get close enough to inspect the body. What little evidence is available-a burned match, a black thread, an earring-doesn't bode well for a quick and easy solution. Even the legendarily cool-headed great detective might begin to crack when a second body turns up. And then an important file goes missing from Sloan's office. How does it all connect?… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom

Oh dear! This installment finds our dear friend Detective Inspector Sloan and his trusty sidekick Crosby looking into the strangest murder. It seems that a man was killed when a rather large and heavy marble statue falls on him, but the debris took up so much room that it blocked all exits into the

room. However, only the dead body is found there. This one's a fun "locked room" typed mystery with a unique solution.

Again, a pretty average entry in the British mystery genre; if you like British mysteries and police procedurals, this will keep your attention. I will say that I figured out after this book why I've only been giving these average marks -- it seems to me that the story builds well, but the endings are rather abrupt. By that I mean that the story is going along rather nicely, and all of a sudden Sloan and Crosby are capturing the culprit. It seems to be a pattern with the author; maybe this won't be the case in the future but at least I'm prepared for it! All in all, a fun read -- I'm getting to like Inspector Sloan more in each story.

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LibraryThing member cmbohn

This classic locked room mystery has a wry twist. A fussy, predictable scientist is found crushed to death inside a church. The police have to discover how the crime was committed before they can discover who committed it.

CMB

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Read three of these in a row. Like most Catherine Airds, good but I can't distinguish one from the next. They're all C.D. Sloane stories, and I can very rarely remember which title goes with which story. But they're always worth reading and re-reading - I just got these three but none of them are

new to me, I enjoyed reading them and will keep them for future rereadings. English small-town police procedurals; she has some repeated themes (the Superintendent is a pointy-haired boss; the constable Sloane always gets stuck with is a speed demon with no brain; "Happy Harry of the Traffic Division - he had that name because he had never been known to smile. Harry always insisted that there was nothing in the Traffic Division's work worth a smile..." - that line, almost verbatim, is in every single book. But the mysteries are nicely varied, and oddly enough while the recurring characters are mostly cardboard and cliche, the ones involved in any individual mystery - the non-recurring characters - are nicely rounded and interesting.

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LibraryThing member smik

This is a delightful cozy. There are bodies of course but even their demise is scientifically achieved. In fact the whole plot of the novel is rather intricately based around patents, science, and secrets.

There's humour too and some interesting characters, ambition, and deception. Through all the

author lays out the clues for the reader to sift through and to decide who the culprit is

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LibraryThing member EricaObey

One of the most original methods of murder I've ever read. And I laughed aloud more than once.

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