cover image Black Eye

Black Eye

Neville Steed. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (221pp) ISBN 978-0-312-03797-0

Insouciant and intrepid Johnny Black narrates this first entry in a new series on English country life murders in the 1930s by the author of the Peter Marklin mysteries. A pilot grounded by injuries, Johnny earns only the ``odd crust'' as a private eye until Diana Travers asks him to investigate her brother-in-law, Michael Seagrave, who, she believes, arranged the accident that killed her sister and made him a rich widower. Posing as a vacationing couple, Johnny and his lady-love, Tracy Spencer-King, track Seagrave to a resort where they confirm Diana's suspicions. Next on the murderer's list are Johnny and Tracy, who save themselves with astonishing derring-do. Steed has created a British-style Nick and Nora Charles, whose grand adventures feature early sports cars, movie stars, the absence of modern expletives, seductively discreet lovemaking rather than raw sex, and other can't-miss appeals to nostalgia buffs. (Feb.)