The Body Politic

Lots of dry humor and wonderful descriptions of the personalities and interactions of the police involved in the case. The solution to the mystery is almost an afterthought to the confusion faced by almost everyone involved.

Just as Calleshire is an imaginary county in England, like the Ledshire of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver novels, here we see the first appearance of the fictional Middle Eastern Sheikhdom of Lasserta, and Anthony Heber-Hibbs, British Ambassador to Lasserta (some relation to the Heber-Hibbs 'county' family we met in _Henrietta Who?_). The Anglo-Lassertan Mineral Company has an awkward problem: Alan Ottershaw, a British mining engineer, ran over a pedestrian in Lasserta who stepped out into oncoming traffic, and faces the death penalty under Lassertan law. The Lassertan government, for its part, is using the incident to put the screws on the company, while Ottershaw himself was bundled home to Calleshire.Where he asked his member of Parliament for help, took part in a historical reenactment by the Camulos Society of the Battle of Lewes, and died - amazingly convenient for almost everybody. (The Camulos Society and their reenactments would entertain me even without a mystery, especially if Aird allowed them to run on a bit longer. I hope they reappear in some future book.)Sloan has a mess on his hands: by the time he and Crosby are called in, Ottershaw's body has been cremated - and we have our first proper introduction to Tod Morton, the local mortician, since he found a mysterious metal pellet in the ashes. Queremitte - the rare mineral mined in Lasserta. Who has been doing what to whom, and why? Why was somebody - not on the Camulos muster list - dressed as Death and following the M.P. around at the reenactment? Who's been sending live scorpions and threatening messages to Calleshire's two M.P.s in the post - but not letter bombs?