Death's Bright Angel

We are informed, courtesy of the Internet, that "Janet Neel is the nom de plume of Baroness (Janet) Cohen of Pimlico, who sits as a Labour peer in the House of Lords." Unfortunately, this seems to be keeping her far too busy of late, leaving her fans bereft of new entries in this wonderful series for lo these many years. Now that the first is back in print, perhaps others will join me in a chorus inspired by Oliver Twist - "Please, ma'am, might we have some more?" The characters are distinctive and memorable, and the writing is far above par - remniscent of Ngaio Marsh. More, please!

I'm so glad to see this book back in print. I think it's one of the best-written and most interesting mysteries that I've read in a long time. Inspector John MacLeish of the Metropolitant Police is called in to investigate a particular brutal murder. At first glance, the murder appears to be the result of a mugging, but the sheer savagery of the crime causes MacLeish to suspect that there is a more personal motive behind the killing. This leads MacLeish to Yorkshire and the company that the victim worked for, the financially-troubled Britex. It seems a longshot, though, that the murder has anything to do with Britex. Eventually, MacLeish crosses paths with Francesca Wilson, a civil servant engaged in evaluating a government rescue of Britex and it's 1400 jobs. The brilliant Francesca has her own problems, balancing a challenging career, being a surrogate mother to her four troublesome younger brothers, and a disasterous love life. MacLeish is instantly smitten with her and they soon begin a relationship. This relationship may be the only thing that saves Francesca as she unwittingly threatens the killer. This is a hard book to describe. It's very much a police procedural, with MacLeish doing all the detective work. There are no "gifted amateur detectives" in this book. Francesca's interesting story runs separately from John's investigation and yet often parallels it. The double fascination in this book is the glimpse it affords of the inner workings of the British civil services. I have no idea if the information is factual, but it certainly sounds convincing. The murderer is not terribly hard to identify once you know all the characters, but the quality of the writing and the characterizations make this book one of my favorites. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys police procedurals, particularly British police procedurals.