Past Mortem [Hardcover]

I don't know much about Ben Elton, but I've read a few of his books before, including the last few detective novels. The novel about the BIG BROTHER house I've reviewed for Amazon, and this one is almost as good as the last. Technically speaking the previous book DEAD FAMOUS took more chances, was more daring in conception and in execution. And this one has, for some reason, a fisting scene in the middle of it that's explicit enough to warrant an X rating, if books still carried such, and yet all in all I prefer the present nook, if only for the charm and wit of the central romance.

Edward Newson is a detective inspector for Scotland Yard, the youngest ever in such a post, even though everyone he meets doubts he's cop because, well, "er . . . isn't there a height restriction?" Apparently not, because Ed is only about five foot four, more of a Hobbit than an Inspector Morse. His second in command is a lovely police sergeant, Natasha Wilkiem whose personal life is a bit of a mess. She has a boyfriend called Lance who's not averse to beating her up a little, when he doesn't get his way. Ed doesn't know how to proceed with Natasha, who occupies all his thoughts day and night. If he says anything, he's afraid she'll laugh him down, for she's way out of his league in terms of looks and sex appeal; and also he's afraid if he leans on her, not that he would, she would have grounds to complain about him for sexual harassment. However, all of this becomes moot when Ed is assigned to what becomes the biggest case of his career.

It seems that the ones getting murdered are all (or were, years ago) horrid bullies as teens. Are the victims finally striking back and torturing the bullies as they were tortured when only children? And what does the Friends Reunited web site have to do with this? Here in the US, I'm not familiar with the Friends School phenomenon which must, if the evidence of this book is to be trusted, be sweeping the country, and all old schoolmates must know now where all their fellow alumni are living and what all of them are doing. I suppose there are similar organizations and websites here in the States, but not on such a scale.

Elton keeps you guessing and, despite the claims of other reviewers, the culprit is a surprise. You'll guess everyone else but the right one! I hope that our police love birds return for another case, but I don't know if Elton has the patience or the steady hand to create a series detective. He's a wild card that one, and that's the way we like him.

You can always count on a few good laugh-out-loud one-liners in a Ben Elton novel and you'll get a few from Past Mortem, but the "mystery" won't exactly keep you guessing. The killer's motivation and identity become obvious fairly early in the piece.
As usual, Elton has picked an atypical hero - in this case "ginger shortarse" Ed Newsom. But, despite the fact that Ed is consistently described as funny, he's actually only given a handful of funny lines. As mentioned by a few other reviewers, the "bullying is bad" message does get repetitive and you do feel like you're getting beaten over the head with it (much like one of the unfortunate murder victims!). Also, there were a few irritating editing errors, eg "throws" instead of "throes" and one plot point that didn't seem to work - one of the murder victims is supposed to have missed meeting a friend at the pub, but then only his family turns up for his funeral and he's described as being universally hated. What happened to the friend?
But these are minor quibbles. All-in-all, this is a fun enough beach/plane read.

When will America discover Ben Elton? As far as I know, none of his books have been published here and they are only available as imports. "Past Mortem" doesn't quite reach the heights of "Dead Famous," but it's a first rate page-turner with heavy dollops of wit and style, and characters who leap off the page. If P.G. Wodehouse wrote sexy serial-killer thrillers, he might have come up with something like this. It's miles above the godawful tripe being served up by American hacks like James Patterson, whose junk stares out at us from every airport book rack.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 15 reviews  3.6 out of 5 stars