Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Book Author: Peter Grainger

When I read the August 26th article by Sara Lyall in The New York Times about Peter Grainger, the pen name of British author Robert Partridge, I was immediately intrigued.  Also a bit embarrassed.  Here is a best-selling author of 17 mysteries who is totally unknown to me.

I ordered his first D. C. Smith novel, An Accidental Death, on Kindle and became hooked at once.  There is something about the writer’s style that made me feel that I knew this police inspector from the first page, even though I knew I hadn’t read his work before.

An Accidental Death introduces D. C. Smith, a detective sergeant in the small town of King’s Lake.  He should be called D. S. Smith because of his rank (Detective Sergeant), but he prefers to go by D. C. (Detective Constable) because those are his initials of his first and middle names.  Since Smith isn’t a man who is interested in status, he’s happy with the initials referring to a lower rank than he actually holds.  After all, he earlier gave up a higher rank because he realized it didn’t allow him to do the actual police work that he loved.

The novel opens with a group of teenagers are fooling around on the bank of a river.  A canoe passes by, its passengers jeering at them, and when a second one is seen, Wayne Fletcher, one of the teenagers, decides get revenge.  He jumps into the water to catch it, and then Wayne and the canoe disappear around a bend.

At first the group on the grass isn’t concerned, but after a few minutes and Wayne hasn’t returned, they begin looking for him but without success.  They go to the police to file a report, and a search is carried out.  Wayne’s body is found in the river, but it’s not certain if his death was an accident or if the missing canoeist is responsible.

Smith and his new partner, Christopher Waters, don’t know the answer either, but Smith’s experience is telling him that the case needs more investigation.  And when the inquiry leads them to the estate of a reclusive former member of the British Army, Smith and Waters realize they are in a dangerous situation.

An Accidental Death is followed by sixteen novels in the D. C. Smith series.  Smith is a dedicated police officer, a man whose abilities guide him through the labyrinth of clues and false statements to discover the truth.  What a wealth of reading is ahead of the readers who discover this outstanding series featuring a down-to-earth man who is able to bring his outstanding abilities and knowledge to his job.

You can read more about the author at this website.