cover image Murder by the Book: A Langham and Dupré Mystery

Murder by the Book: A Langham and Dupré Mystery

Eric Brown. Severn/Creme de la Crime, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-78029-051-5

SF author Brown (Homeworld) does a good job depicting the changing social world of 1955 London in his well-paced first mystery. Literary agent Charles Elder asks an old friend and client, mystery writer Donald Langham, to help him with a delicate personal matter. Kenneth, “a charming scallywag” with whom Charles has become intimate at the Hackney swimming baths, is now trying to blackmail him with incriminating photographs of the pair in flagrante delicto. Don, whose contact at an investigative agency could assist in the case, teams with Charles’s glamorous associate, Maria Dupré, to try to retrieve the photos. Meanwhile, a number of Don’s fellow writers are meeting untimely ends. Maria lacks the well-roundedness of the main characters, but her high spirits nicely compliment Don’s somewhat-dour nature. Readers will hope a sequel is in the works. Agent: John Jarrold, John Jarrold Literary Agency (U.K.). (Aug.)