Some Die Eloquent

It wasn't so much how Beatrice Wansdyke died that was the trouble - it was what she had when she died. £250,000 - which I calculated to be worth $1.2 million today. So what was a quiet, elderly schoolteacher doing with that kind of money? Her lifestyle didn't reflect a taste for the good life. She lived in a modest home in a quiet suburb that the police describe in the most glowing terms - "no trouble, even on Saturday nights!" So when the medical examiner finds a few suspicious indications, he informs Inspector C D Sloan. Sloan is plenty busy on his own. His wife is 9 months pregnant with their first baby, and growing more irritable and uncomfortable by the minute. (Hm, wonder what that's like.) But Superintendent Leeyes is just as determined that Sloan figure out how the woman died, where the money came from, and whether there was any foul play involved. I really enjoy this series. I love the dry, English humor that runs through the books. The exchange between Inspectors Sloan and Harpe has all the humor of Abbott and Costello, but with a British flavor. My only complaint is that sometimes the books leave a lot of loose ends. But this one is one of the best and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre.

This book starts with a three-line verse by Rudyard Kipling (Some Die Eloquent), and it is a very good way to describe the death that Sloan is faced with in this book. A lady with life-threatening diabetes is found dead in her home. That doesn't look so suspicious until it is discovered that this quiet chemistry teacher has 3/4 of a million pounds in her bank account. This puts Sloan and Crosby on the tail of a murderer. The book is quite fast-paced for a Catherine Aird, and there is a fair amount of tension throughout. This is certainly aided by the impending birth of Sloan's baby and the needs that his family situation put on him. But never fear, he's there for the arrest of the murderer, and he makes it in time for the birth of his son. A good entry in the Sloan series.

Some die eloquent...Some die wholly in half a breathSome - give trouble for half a year.- A Death-Bed, by Rudyard KiplingInspector Sloan, accompanying his wife Margaret to a prenatal examination, is rescued by Dr. Dabbe, who is about to perform an autopsy on Beatrice Wansdyke, 59-year-old chemistry teacher at a girls' school. She supposedly died of diabetes, which wouldn't interest the Berebury force, and with a quarter of a million pounds in the bank, which interests them very much. Where could she get that kind of money - legally or illegally? The bank surely isn't saying, and the police force isn't familiar with her, except for Crosby, who was sent out when she reported a lost dog a few days ago.Her nephew George, a director of the plastics company where Miss Wansdyke did research when away from teaching, hasn't been told why the coroner ordered a post-mortem, but he's too wise in the ways of legal authority to protest. Her niece Briony, now free to quit her nurse's training and marry whenever she likes, is worried over something - her brother Nicholas, the family black sheep. Dabbe's autopsy reveals that Miss Wansdyke did indeed die of diabetes - but that doesn't mean it wasn't murder. Especially when Crosby finds the dog with its throat cut in Miss Wansdyke's back garden...Sloan is less than keen about this case, since his wife's obstetrician is engaged to one of the suspects, and their first child is due to be born any minute. (Yes, that thread finally reaches a conclusion in this book, having started in _Slight Mourning_). The suspects cover the social spectrum, from rough-living Nicholas and his druggie friends to company director George Wansdyke and his fanatical partner Malcolm Darnley - the nature-loving bane of Traffic Division, who protests the cutting of any tree for any roadwork in the county. A good novel as well as a good mystery, as usual.

Beatrice Wansdyke, a chemistry teacher of Berebury is found dead. About to retire, people were sorry about her death but not surprised. She'd been known to suffer from diabetes for years. A constable's wife overheard two bank clerks talking in a queue at the supermarket about Miss Wansdyke's dying with a quarter of a million pounds in the bank. This is brought to Inspector Sloan's attention and starts the investigation. Where did she get it? She lived modestly. And Sloan's rather hapless Constable Crosby was acquainted with Miss Wansdyke because she'd very recently come to him about her missing dog. The story is well plotted, very absorbing and entertaining. Inspector Sloan, about to become a father in this book, is one of the more likeable of the British police Inspectors. British cozies are a great favorite of mine and Catherine Aird is a master of this genre. This one is a gem!