Blood Brother: An Inspector

Political, labor and class strife in modern England lead to murder in this taut and sometimes poignant procedural. Penelope Browne, an upper-class film producer and sister of right-wing MP Russell Browne, is found shot to death in her Hutton-on-Trent cottage. The investigation by Detective Inspector ""Jacko"" Jackson, last encountered in Bent Grasses, is hampered by his superior's nerves over the brother's position as the new Minister at the Home Office for Police Affairs, but complicating facts come to light early. The child-loving Penelope had had an abortion recently, and she maintained a close friendship, possibly a love affair, with her brother's major political rival, Rich Richardson, a married union leader whose family had been active in labor action for decades against the Brownes' glass works, source of the family wealth. The possibility of IRA involvement is raised early but dismissed. While the married Jacko probes into motives and timetables, he finds himself drawn to fellow investigator WPC Tricia Floyd-Moore, who draws him out of middle-age megrims in Palmer's vividly evoked post-industrial society. (Dec.)