Backhand Smash

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. (Mar.)