Hardcastle’s Quandary

Set in 1927, Ison’s entertaining 15th mystery featuring Det. Insp. Ernest Hardcastle (after 2017’s Hardcastle’s Runaway) takes Hardcastle, the head of the CID for the Whitehall Division of the Metropolitan Police, along with his long-suffering sidekick, Det. Sgt. Charles Marriott, and newly promoted Det. Sgt. Henry Catto, from London to Norfolk. There they interview the Rev. Percy Stoner, the vicar of Southfork, who’s worried that his nephew, Guy Stoner, a WWI veteran who’s been struggling to run a farm and has gone missing, has been murdered. The subsequent investigation uncovers, among other surprises, a severed head in a biscuit tin. Fortunately, the case veers back to London, a venue Hardcastle much prefers. Catto is assigned the task of visiting the capital’s nightclubs in an attempt to track down a beautiful young dancer, while Hardcastle and Marriott look into an interconnected series of crimes that all revolve around the missing Guy. The book’s main strength is Hardcastle, an arrogant, tetchy, curmudgeonly, and yet admirable character. Readers will hope he has a long career. (Apr.)