Least of Evils: A Percy Peach Mystery

Reason and insight can still be the detective’s greatest weapons, as shown in Gregson’s agreeable 16th mystery featuring Lancashire Det. Chief Insp. Percy Peach (after 2011’s Merely Players). Oliver Ketley, rich, powerful, and known by the police to be involved with drugs, prostitution, and gangland killings, has moved into Thorley Grange with his Swedish trophy wife, Greta, and an entourage of staff and bodyguards. An inept burglar provides Peach with an unexpected lever to glimpse Ketley’s existence at Thorley Grange, but Ketley’s subsequent murder changes everything. Peach finds Ketley had many enemies, including a rival gangster who hired a contract killer to do in Ketley, Greta, and Greta’s former SAS officer lover. Proving whodunit is a different matter, and Peach’s careful interrogation of suspects and Ketley’s household staff paves the way to a surprising and satisfying solution. (July)