Shallow Grave

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying mystery - less satisfying personal characters
Review: A body is found in a hole dug at the back of an old Rectory in a highly respectable London Neighbourhood and Detective Bill Slider of the Shepherd's Bush Police Station is called in to investigate. In fact the case at first sight seems astonishingly simple. Jennifer Andrews, the deceased, has been placed in a hole dug by her husband, a builder, to shore up an old terrace. Had Frances Hammond not been out walking her dog in her backyard, no one might have seen the body before Andrews had a chance to fill in the hole and bury his wife for ever. After all, he had been following her around all night - even threatening to kill her.

However there are things that just don't add up - why was Jennifer's handbag left in his car?, Why did Frances Hammond's dog not bark in the night when it heard the intruder dump the body and why did no one hear his footsteps on the gravel path?

Jennifer Andrews was no saint either - she had been having affairs, and who had she gone to meet the night before? - it certainly wasn't her husband. And what does the real-estate agent Donald Meacher have to do with this all?

I do like Harrod-Eagles mysteries but her characters of Bill Slider, his lover Joanna, Ex-wife Irene and his side-kick, Atherton just seem a bit cardboard to me. They don't seem to have real emotions - just reactions handy to creating a bit of personal angst. I found that side a real let down.

This is Harrod Eagles 7th book in the Bill Slider series (there are 8 of them so far to April 2001) and I'm not sure how many more there are to come. She does write a great and enjoyable mystery. The personal life doesn't intrude too much into the real story of the mystery.