MURDER MOST VILE

A missing artist, a missing greyhound, and murder: The game’s afoot!

London, 1957. The crackerjack detective team of Donald Langham and Ralph Ryland tackle two baffling disappearances along parallel tracks. In the better-paying one, wealthy, distraught Vernon Lombard implores Langham to find his missing son, Christopher, a renowned artist. The case is time-sensitive because Lombard is dying and wants to leave his estate to Christopher and not his other son, Nigel, a ne’er-do-well. A phone call from Lombard’s daughter, Victoria, comes as a surprise to the sleuths, since Lombard’s emotional account of family dynamics didn’t even mention a daughter. She offers a far less sympathetic portrait of her father. Meanwhile, Ryland, a devoted fan of greyhound racing, learns that valuable dog Neb (short for Nebuchadnezzar) has been nipped, probably by “some Essex mob.” He sets out to find Neb and return him to owner Arnold Grayson, a decidedly shady character. In the Lombard case, fully fleshed portraits of the suspects-to-be, which include extended family and associates, prepare the way for the inevitable murder. The solution has intriguing roots in contemporaneous British history. Meanwhile, Ryland scours London's meanest streets in his efforts to recover the beloved Neb. Could these two plots possibly converge? Brown’s double-decker mystery benefits greatly from the contrast between the two investigations, a traditional whodunit set in a patrician world counterpointed with a thrilling caper among the hardscrabble working class. Brisk dialogue and colorful, crisply drawn characters keep interest high.

A sleek, smart, well-appointed period mystery.