Poison at the Pueblo: A Simon Bognor Mystery

In Heald’s refreshingly light 12th Simon Bognor mystery (after 2011’s Death in the Opening Chapter), Bognor, the head of Special Investigations at the Board of Trade, is pleasantly surprised to get word from Downing Street that he’s receiving a knighthood. Despite this honor, Bognor locks horns with the prime minister over the investigator’s plan to journey to Spain to look into the death of Jimmy Trubshawe, a gang leader who perished from food poisoning after eating some mushrooms. Bognor hopes to use Trubshawe’s death as a way to get leverage over British expat criminals living on the Spanish coast. Against the prime minister’s wishes, Bognor and his enjoyably acerbic wife, Monica, travel to Madrid to start his inquiries. The author’s dry humor (“Doing nothing came naturally to him”) is a plus, as is a plot line that’s far from run-of-the-mill. (Mar.)