I have just started Catherine Aird's Past Tense - the latest in the Sloan and Crosby series. I first came across Catherine Aird's traditional mysteries way back in the early 1970s when I decided I would read a new crime author and didn't know who to try next. Her books were the first in the fiction section on the library shelves and happened to be crime so I picked one at random. It was Complete Steel I read first about a body in a suit of armour in a stately home open to the public. I thought it very good and went on to read all the books she had written at the time and have read each new one as it came out since.
The stories feature DI C D Sloan and the blundering DC Crosby - who occasionally has flashes of inspiration which help solve cases. These are country mysteries with little on the page violence and a nice line in gentle humour as well as realistic characters. If you like M C Beaton - both Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin; and Veronica Heley, Hazel Holt or Simon Brett you will probably enjoy Catherine Aird.
3 comments:
I think you sum up Catherine Aird's enjoyable writing very well. She is a jolly good entertainer.
Thank you for this recommendation, Jilly. I haven't come across Catherine Aird yet. (And why didn't I use a pseudonym beginning with A?!)
Thanks for your good wishes on my blog.
Thank you both. She is one of those underrated authors who deserve to be better known in my opinion.
Leigh - it doesn't matter what name you use - word of mouth - or keyboard - is more powerful I think!
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