Dover Goes to Pott: A Mystery

This is a Scotland Yard procedural featuring a rude, lazy, hypochondriac, snobby, grasping, irascible Chief Inspector Dover who is sent to a 'company town' -- one industry, one employer, the whole town dependant on this employer -- to investigate the death of this man's only daughter and heir. Dover, basically, couldn't be bothered, needs some rest...until he is offered a lucrative position post-investigation, provided he settles on the correct villain, son-in-law -- and sends him away forever. Dover, having no scruples, is quite happy to do this. His sidekick Sargent MacGregor follows the rules and the interplay between the two is largely what the story is about. It's just this side of farcical, is very entertaining & the mystery aspect, though not altogether necessarily focal, works just fine. Foul Play, the publisher of this book, is always a good bet for mysteries; they make good choices in who they re-issue (this book was originally published in 1968); it seems as if most of the series/titles they do are on the "cozy" side, as this one is. The plot isn't very tricky, the solving of the mystery isn't really Joyce Porter's point -- so if you like extraordinarily complicated alibis and odd methods of murder, skip this one -- but if the interplay between Morse and Lewis is your favorite part of Dexter's mysteries; or the occasional tetchiness between Holmes & Watson; or the pub conversation in Long Piddleton (the Martha Grimes town, I think it's Long Piddleton) -- then I believe that you will quite enjoy DOVER GOES TO POTT I haven't read the rest of the series, look forward to doing so...