British Crime

Bill James offers a stand-alone, Middleman, the tawdry if wryly amusing tale of a small-time Welsh operator who runs into trouble when he agrees to help a crooked real-estate developer sell an expensive property on the Cardiff waterfront. James is the author of Pay Days (Forecasts, June 25, 2001) and other titles in his acclaimed Harpur & Iles series. (Do-Not Press [Dufour dist.], $29.95 240p ISBN 1-899344-96-9; $14.95 paper -95-0; May 1)

Yorkshire DI Charlie Priest has his work cut out for him when the bodies of two women, one the school beauty, the other a plain housewife, turn up in Stuart Pawson's sly whodunit, Laughing Boy . A dead American rock star may hold the key to catching a serial killer. (Allison & Busby [IPM dist.], $24.95 288p ISBN 0-7490-0544-0; May 1)

In Geraldine Evans's Absolute Poison, the fifth Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery (after Dead Before Morning), the two detectives investigate the murder of a despised company manager, found poisoned at his desk. Then there's the problem of the suit of dubious provenance that Sergeant Llewellyn bought from Inspector Rafferty's mother. (Severn, $25.99 224p ISBN 0-7278-5914-5; May)

In Murder at the Lodge, J.M. Gregson's latest engaging Inspector Peach mystery, somebody strangles to death a notorious ladies' man in the car park after the North Brunton Masonic Lodge Ladies' Night. The suspects, cuckolded husbands all, even include Peach's boss and eminent mason, Chief Inspector Tucker. (Severn, $26.99 224p ISBN 0-7278-5813-0; May)