The Decent Inn of Death

Twenty-one years and five books after the release of his exceptional first historical mystery, River of Darkness, Airth continues to devise new investigations for his original Scotland Yard-trained sleuths. This new novel, set in the early 1950s, sends former Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair—currently suffering from heart problems—off to visit friends in the south of England. There he learns about a German church organist, Greta Hartmann, who recently drowned in a stream, supposedly by accident. Greta’s housemate doesn’t believe such codswallop, however, and Sinclair has doubts, too, after learning the deceased had been discomposed by encountering an unidentified man whose car had broken down. Sinclair wonders whether that driver was a Nazi war criminal and killer from Greta’s past. But before he can inquire further, the chief inspector finds himself snowbound at an isolated country manor. Meanwhile, ex-Inspector John Madden pursues his friend Sinclair, increasingly worried for his health and fearing that he may also be at risk from Greta’s murderer. Although it’s slightly compromised by a plotting coincidence, Airth’s latest procedural remains a tightly constructed, classic-style whodunit with a genuine surprise ending. —Jeff (from the Madison Books newsletter)