A Nice Place to Die

The differences between the crowded losers in the Somerset housing estate of Catcombe Mead and the aging population of the farm village of Old Catcombe propel this middling crime novel from McLoughlin (Coincidence). When vicar Tim Baker tries to bridge the gulf between the two, he receives a fatal beating from a group of teenage thugs led by Kevin Miller. Det. Chief Insp. Rachel Moody and her partner, Sgt. Jack Reid, find the estate residents unwilling to admit to seeing anything: not Kevin’s mother, Donna, whose arrival ended the beating; not Alice Bates, who saw everything that went on from behind her curtains; not retired doctor Peter Henson or his wife, Jean. A lustful relationship between farm boy Mark Pearson and Kevin’s 15-year-old stepsister, Jess, offers a wobbly link between estate and village. More deaths follow before McLoughlin wraps things up with more than one unconvincing resolution. (Nov.)