Orchestrated D [Hardcover]

I first read this book years ago, then lost track of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Bill Slider mysteries.

Rediscovered them recently.

This one in particular is wonderful. A strange combination of police procedural and (sometimes very) British humor A knowledge of ALICE IN WONDERLAND helps. It also helps if you grew up in a family for whom punning was a way of life. "You've been eating razor soup" was what my mother's family said to the worst of the punsters. Here's an example--Sergeant Atherton's cat is "unimaginatively named Oedipus." Huh? Try dividing it into three words, using a long E, in the British style for the first. I'm kind of looking for [...] who can carry that name.

But it's not all a barrel of laughs (or wondering what British-ism you've missed there). The victim's life, as it's unraveled by the investigators, is sad, And we get caught up as she tries to escape the fate closing in on her. And it is unraveled by the investigators, not seen through her eyes.

I have read most of the later Slider books, and decided to go back and read the first three. This is not as good as later books, in my opinion, but reading it is helpful in understanding Bill Slider's romantic life in subsequent books.

The plot involves the discovery of a naked young woman in an empty apartment in an iffy neighborhood. She has been stripped to conceal her identity, but fairly early, London police detective Slider and his team discover who she is. She turns out to be liked by virtually no-one. On the other hand, given how she died, there are several people who might have done it -- yet they don't seem to have much of a motive.

As with all too many of this series, I had a good (and correct) idea who the perp was way ahead of Slider, who must struggle along follow police procedure. This didn't bother me all that much, as it was a hunch that needed to be confirmed. I found myself more bothered by holes in the plot. For example -- and stop reading here, if you don't want even the tiniest bit of a spoiler -- I found it unbelievable that someone could be grabbed and injected in the vein by one person. Any movement at all would make an injection into a vein extremely difficult. I also never really understand the underlying group of criminals -- never did make sense what they were doing and how this would work. Finally, extremely expensive musical instruments are generally treated with extreme care, which no-one in this book seems to do.

I don't think of myself as puritanical, but the romance between Bill and Joanna was an annoyance -- too much of it, and I thought less of both of them for jumping into the sack with each other, given that Slider is married with children. Even if there were two single people involved, I was more interested in the mystery than the many pages of romance, longing, and angst.

But -- this series on the whole is great for those who love British police procedurals.

I was only on page 2 when I was assaulted by the first crude and vulgar sentence. I thought it didn't bode well but I wanted to give the book a chance and continued a few more pages where once again I was forced to read unnecessary sexual details regarding the female corpse.

I'm throwing this book away now. I wouldn't want to insult the sensibilities of my fellow library patrons by donating it there.

How this ended up on any booksellers "Best Book I Ever Read" list is the real mystery. Perhaps it was an adult book store.