The Methods of Sergeant Cluff

Originally published in 1961, North’s second Sergeant Cluff novel (after Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm) is not a classic mystery, despite its inclusion in the British Library Crime Classics series. Rather, it is a rumination on social change in England during the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period that saw the rise of a moneyed professional class. As one character puts it, “In my father’s day they had to be gentry. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry with the cheek can stick his oar in now.” The claustrophobic atmosphere of Gunnarshaw, the fictional Yorkshire town where the story is set, echoes the gloomy character of its hero, Sergeant Cluff. There is a hypnotic pleasure in watching Cluff, usually in the company of his collie, Clive, wandering the back alleys and canal tow paths, scoffing gravy-filled meat pies at a workingman’s cafe and gossiping with the locals. These seemingly inconclusive activities in fact reveal the prejudices, mores, and class structure of Gunnarshaw and lead Cluff to intuit the murderer of a young local woman. Anglophiles will find a lot to like. (Sept.)