No Cure For Death by
Hazel Holt
hbk out June 05
Published by Allison Busby
at £18.99
Hazel Holt is the unchallenged 'Queen of the Cosies' and no doubt after a
string of previous books, is weary of her heroine Sheila Malory being
likened to a latter-day Miss Marples!
Sheila is the resident busy-body of Taviscombe, a fictitious North
Somerset town bearing a striking resemblance to Minehead. A member of
almost every committee and a nosy-parker-extraordinary, the lady
becomes involved in every homicide for miles around, and in this book
the corpse is that of Dr Morrison, one of the GPs in the local practice.
A remote, unfriendly man, he is found stabbed to death in his consulting
room when Sheila just happens to be sitting outside. A handful of
suspects appear, together with the usual village scandals, and by her
inveterate gossiping and prying, Sheila gets to the truth ahead of the
police.
To be honest, the plot is not all that relevant to the enjoyment of Hazel
Holt's books. She has a remarkable gift for writing all the things that the
reader agrees with, from the awful system of appointments in general
practice to the control freakery that now permeates every level of British
society. This political incorrectness is leavened by cookery recipes, the
behaviour of her cat and dog as well as all the things that we of advancing
years feel is wrong with the world! Yet all this is offered with a wit and
cheerfulness that makes reading a Hazel Holt 'whodunnit' a real pleasure,
assuring us that we are not quite alone in our belief that modern society is
going down the tubes.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
No Cure For Death by
Hazel Holt
