THE MIND OF MR. MOSLEY

by John Greenwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 12, 1987

Another small, quietly droll outing for unorthodox Lancashire village-cop Mr. Morley--who's a bit bitter over the suicide, in Upper Crudshaw, of 74-year-old Reuben Tunni-cliffe, a retired baker's journeyman. Morley, you see, soon becomes convinced that someone drove Tunnicliffe to hang himself--by blackmailing the old man out of his life's savings. And Mosley decides, just before going off on a rare vacation, to bait a few traps for the local blackmailer--with help from some Upper Crudshaw chums (the minister's saucy wife, prolific poet Millicent Millicheap, et al.) who agree to pose as likely extortion victims: sinful creatures with Big Secrets. By the time Mosley returns, however, the playacting has gotten utterly out of hand. The minister and his wife are on the brink of divorce; Miss Millicheap, widely believed to be an enemy spy, is being shadowed by agents from three Intelligence networks. So Morley, who has meanwhile solved the blackmail mystery, must set things right in a farcical Finale (complete with spies converging on a ""night-soil cart"")--while incidentally nabbing the region's most elusive sheep-rustler. Gently outlandish, subtly--sometimes even obliquely--amusing: a posthumous memento from the late John Buxton Hilton.

Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Walker

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION