In Catherine Aird's Slight Mourning, Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan is on another case. Although this time, he's not entirely sure it even is a case. A man got killed in a car accident while escorting a dinner guest home. But was he going to die anyway? Amidst a lot of confusing terminology spewed forth by the pathologist, Sloan deciphers a disturbing fact: That the dead man had been poisoned. Did he commit suicide? Or did one of the eleven others at dinner that night - or the farmer who visited him that day, or the cook, for that matter - try to kill him?
Pros: A lot of detectives in old mystery novels get to be the same. Unreadable eyes, handsome face with a chiseled jaw, doesn't say a lot, amazing deductive powers... Blah, blah, blah. But Sloan is pretty much an ordinary guy. Every once in a while he'll get this great insight and solve the case, but it isn't presented in a "this guy is the greatest detective ever" kind of way. He's just an ordinary cop doing his job. I like his wife, who is really sweet. The humor is very dry, which is right up my alley. And his partner, Detective Constable Crosby, is stupid in a funny, not-too-over-the-top way. It's pretty well written, and flows easily.
Cons: A little too much information. Ms. Aird was the daughter and assistant of a doctor for years, and the terminology she uses is, at times, way too technical. But it is explained, which helps. Sometimes I got lost during conversations between Sloan and his supervisor, but their deductions were fairly obvious or were explained in a simpler way later on.
My Rating: T (thematic elements)
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