Injury Time

Rating:
Summary: Not only Inspector Sloan, but Henry Tyler short stories
Review: In this collection of 16 short stories, 3 feature Henry Tyler of the Foreign Office, 2 don't feature series characters, and the rest feature Inspector C.D. Sloan. His colleague, Inspector Harpe ('Happy' Harry, who's never seen anything to smile about in Traffic Division) gets his fair share of the stage.

"Blue Upright", "Cause and Effects", "Slight of Hand" - These 3 Henry Tyler mysteries can be found on the unabridged audio _Cause and Effects_, read by Edward Raleigh (see my review for details).

"Bare Essentials" - See my review of the audio collection of the same name.

"Devilled Dip" - Anthony (known as 'Ant'), as a professional pickpocket, doesn't take much stock in his wife's announcement that his horoscope says he'll be the life and soul of the day's events.

"Double Jeopardy" - While Sloan and Crosby are waiting for a report in the mortuary, Dr. Dabbe the pathologist tells one of his doctor father's stories, about an experimental high-fever treatment for VD (infecting the subject with malaria to sort of cancel things out) that very nearly went into the doctor instead of the patient...

"A Fair Cop" - This is really Happy Harry's case rather than Sloan's. A young nurse, coming off duty late one night, found herself being pursued by another driver for miles. (That story doesn't turn out quite the way you'll expect; very clever.) Now Harpe has 'chummie' locked inside a car, and wants Sloan (as CID) to tell him what the creep can be charged with, since the girl mercifully hasn't been hurt.

"The Hard Sell" - Harpe, meeting Sloan over tea and sandwiches in the police canteen, had to deal with a death by motorcar at the Calleshire Classic Car Club. A Jaguar being put through an engine test for a prospective buyer, with no one at the wheel, managed to kill a man. Sloan has to cross-examine Harry to get all the details.

"Her Indoors" - Leeyes is relaying a request to Sloan from the Assistant Chief Constable: he'd like Sloan's opinion, as a working detective, on an unnamed woman whose husband was murdered by her daughter's boyfriend. See if you can work out exactly who the ACC is asking about before Leeyes spells it out.

"Home is the Hunter" - Sloan and Crosby are sent to carry out an extradition order on Laura Vercollas, whose much older husband died in suspicious circumstances in a small-town hotel in France. If she didn't kill him, what happened?

"Lord Peter's Touch" - This was originally written for a book dedicated to *the* Lord Peter. As it happens, the 8 ringers at Almstone church in Calleshire are always called after the ringers in Sayers' _The Nine Tailors_, and one of the ringers was killed when his bell's stay broke, toppling the bell over its balance point and slamming the ringer on the other end of the rope into the ceiling. This story consists of Sloan's final report to Superintendent Leeyes; a friend of the Almstone rector's, substituting for (who else?) the ringer called William Thoday, seems to have worked out most of the case before Sloan even arrived.

"The Man Who Rowed for the Shore" - In an unusual twist, the viewpoint character is Norman Pace, who has just cleverly arranged the murder of his wife. He seems to have thought of everything, even timing matters so that her death and funeral arrangements happened while he was out of the country. The question is how Sloan will ever find out about it, let alone be able to prosecute, as Pace had his wife cremated and is about to scatter the ashes at sea.

"Memory Corner" - Crosby has just taken a call from Almstone University, asking the CID to please come around, because the caller just killed a man. (Sloan's first reaction is to call people in white coats instead). We're treated to the weirdest confession of a supposed murderer I've seen in a long time - is the guy crazy, or crazy like a fox?

"The Misjudgement of Paris" - Henry Molland has the most experience in among the candidates, but isn't likely to win in the final interviews for general manager (UK), being held in Paris to see how the candidates get along without support staff - the higher-ups think he's too old. Instead of having a stag night with the other candidates, he opts for breakfast with his daughter in the hotel on the morning of the final interview, which has unexpected consequences. Not a mystery, but entertaining.

"One Under the Eight" - Sir Paul Markham of Almstone is a distinguished scientist, working for a clandestine agency. (Sloan has some private, uncomplimentary comparisons with a nutter under the railway arches who also has problems with unnamed outside agencies.) Sir Paul's research was stolen the night before, and now the chief constable has been called in to help contain the problem - because only 3 members of the security agency could have tipped off whoever bypassed Sir Paul's security system. The question is, when did any of them have a chance to pass on the information, and how did they do it? They were at a wine-tasting exhibition all evening...

"Steady as She Goes" - After the sudden death of Anna Macmillan, Dr. Dabbe found she died of antimony poisoning. Her sister says the husband did it - but he shared the cocktails that were the last thing his wife had to drink, and both the husband and the sister have financial motives. How did the poison get into the victim, and when?