Final Act

January 11, 2016
In Gregson’s engrossing 19th mystery featuring Det. Chief Insp. Percy Peach (after 2015’s A Necessary End), Jason Fitton, a member of the Birch Fields Tennis Club in Brunton, a suburb of Manchester, England, is strangled following the exclusive club’s summer dance. Plenty of people despised the victim, all of whom appear in engaging vignettes. Among the suspects are the board member who blamed Fitton for her husband’s illness, the club official who loathed him for his womanizing, the manager of Fitton’s legitimate business (who blamed him for starving it of funds), and the enterprising Pakistani member with an unsavory interest in underage girls. Meanwhile, Det. Sgt. Clyde Northcott, protégé of the irascible and talented Peach, has just become the club’s first black member, which causes personal and professional complications. Peach cleverly and relentlessly pursues the truth in a police procedural that seamlessly incorporates details about officers in their off-duty hours into a complex murder case.

March 1, 2016

DS Clyde Northcott, a protege of DCI Percy Peach, has no desire to join the Birch Fields Tennis Club. Yet the club has decided to recruit "desirable" minorities, and Peach believes Northcott should be dragooned into joining. When a dead body turns up, will Peach and Northcott find the killer before more snooty members are murdered? Gregson's 19th installment (after A Necessary End) features the series's trademark British humor and amusing characters.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2015
The inimitable DCI Percy Peach is back in this engrossing read about murder at a tennis club. Percy's black bagman, Clyde Northcott, has been persuaded to join the upscale Birch Lane Tennis Club to show that the club has moved into the twenty-first century and embraces the racial and ethnic diversity of Brunton in Northumberland. But just days after Northcott joins Birch Lane, one of the club's board members, Jason Fitton, is murdered. Fitton, owner of a scrap-metal business, was also into less savory ventures, including betting shops, prostitution, gambling, and trafficking of children. Percy Peach knows that, however much he abhors the man, he must take every care in investigating Fitton's murder. There are plenty of potential suspects, because plenty of people had good reason to hate Fitton. But Percy is nothing if not persistent. A darkly humorous, cleverly plotted, well-written, thoroughly engaging police procedural.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2016
The hit TV series Inspector Loxton is filming on location in the British countryside when the unthinkable happens. The show's producer, Sam Jackson, is found strangled to death in his trailer. Detective Superintendent Lambert and Detective Sergeant Hook are called to the scene to investigate the killing. They soon find a plethora of suspects, as Jackson was universally loathed by the cast, crew, and a good many others for his boorish behavior. Lambert and Hook focus on the people who would have had the most to gain by Jackson's death, which includes the cast, the assistant producer, and the director. Another murder complicates matters, raising questions of motive. Similar in style to an Agatha Christie thriller, but with a modern-day feel, this is an easy, satisfying, and entertaining read that will suit a wide range of mystery readers: procedural fans, of course, but also the theatrical-thriller crowd, especially admirers of Simon Brett's Charles Paris series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 11, 2016
The 29th entry in British author Gregson’s police series featuring Det. Chief Supt. John Lambert and Det. Sgt. Bert Hook (after 2015’s Skeleton Plot) feels like a reunion with old friends—new place, new crime, but comfortable as a cozy tea party. Sam Jackson, the ill-tempered and vindictive producer of a popular TV detective show, looks to old-time Hollywood film producer Samuel Goldwyn of MGM as his role model. While the show’s stars and crew are on location in Herefordshire, someone strangles Sam with his own necktie in his caravan. When Lambert and Hook interview persons of interest, it appears that all have a motive, most have the means, and just as many had the opportunity. Gregson lets his sharply drawn ancillary characters carry the weight of the plot, as one by one their theatrically crafted facades begin to break down and the real killer is exposed. Fans can trust Gregson’s attention to detail to win the day.

July 1, 2016
Lambert and Hook (A Necessary End, 2015, etc.) are stymied by an array of suspects who all make their living by deception.Though he's a bit of a local celebrity in his own right, Chief Superintendent John Lambert hates the limelight. So much so that he sends his even more retiring subaltern, DS Bert Hook, to appear on the telly alongside Sam Jackson and Ernie Clark, producer and assistant producer of the popular Inspector Loxton series. Having met the obnoxious Jackson at the interview should give Lambert's right-hand man some insight into who might be to blame when the bully meets his end on the set of Herefordshire Horrors, the latest Loxton episode that's being shot on location right in Lambert and Hook's backyard. But in spite of his Open University qualifications, Hook is as befuddled as his boss. There's no dearth of suspects; not one of Herefordshire's cast escaped Jackson's sadistic baiting. But seasoned actors like Sir Bradley Morton, leading man Martin Buttivant, versatile David Deeney, and sexy Sandra Rokeby are skilled at dissimulation. Even neophyte Peg Reynolds has the wit to hide what she thinks most incriminating. Finding what suspects want to conceal is Lambert and Hook's bread and butter. This time, pitted against a group as professional as they are, they earn it and then some. An appealing cast of characters both on set and off makes Gregson's latest outing a pleasure for procedural buffs.

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