A Hole in One by
Catherine Aird
hbk out March 05
Published by Allison Busby
at £18.99
This is a good, dare I say it, 'old-fashioned' British whodunnit, the latest
in a long line of Catherine Aird books and another in her Detective
Inspector Sloane series. Though not exactly of the 'cosy' genre, they are
amiable tales of middle England, albeit with a corpse or two thrown in.
In this one, the whole plot takes place in a golf club, after a body is
literally unearthed (or un-sanded) in a bunker, by a lady player desperate
to get her ball back into play.
At the time, Sloane's senior officer, Superintendent Leeyes, is at the club,
angling to be elected to the Committee and makes the DI's investigation
all the more difficult because of his interference.
The story unfolds through the many members brought into the plot, both
lady golfers and a clutch of businessmen, and the caddies, whose
machinations are vital to the story-line.
To me, for whom golf is almost as much a mystery as cricket, part of the
attraction of the book is the similar ignorance of Sloane about the game
and Catherine Aird uses her witty dialogue to educate us both.
A nice, easy read and even if the author's notions of forensic pathology
and police procedure are rather quaint, so what? It's good entertainment,
free from foul language, anatomical sex and deep psychological breast –
beating.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
A Hole in One by
Catherine Aird
