A Species of Revenge

Eccles writes police procedurals in the classic English tradition. In her latest Superintendent Gil Mayo tale (A Death of Distinction, 1998), she infuses a typical country-house setting with an atmosphere of menace. The recently widowed Dermot Voss and his two daughters have bought Edwina Lodge, a massive, rundown Victorian house in the town of Lavenstock near Birmingham. Part of the house is broken up into apartments, with the usual complement of eccentric lodgers. Next-door is another Victorian monstrosity, Simla, where three rather odd siblings, twins Hope and Francis Kendrick and their sister, Imogen, live. Also nearby is Ellington Close, a new development of homes. But it seems that each of the vividly described characters in this enclosed neighborhood may have something to hide. When a man is killed in the nearby allotment garden, nobody comes forward to identify him. The victim has been hit on the head and has drowned in just a few inches of water in a deserted garden plot in the middle of the night. Gil Mayo and Inspector Abigail Moon now have on their hands the most puzzling kind of murder case: both victim and killer are unknown, and then a second murder may or may not be linked to the first. Eccles delivers engaging characters and a nicely tangled plot in this worthy effort. (Sept.)