SOUND EVIDENCE

In his tenth outing, bachelor Inspector Rudd of the Chelmsford C.I.D. (Portrait of Lilith, etc.) is trying to keep peace between his longtime right-hand man, Sergeant Boyce, and bright newcomer Colin Munro. He's also busy fighting his strong attraction to Dr. Marion Greave, temporary Medical Examiner. And they're all involved in tracking down the murderer of small-time crook Ray Chivers, a homosexual found in a back-street hideout, robbed of his sizable share from a recent robbery. The only substantial lead: the testimony of aging widower Stanley Aspinell, a longtime area resident who thinks he may have seen the murderer. But then Aspinell, after waiting for hours to see the Inspector at the police station, suddenly disappears--only to turn up dead two days later. And the case doesn't budge until Rudd pays a visit to Chivers' eminently respectable lover Hugo Bannister, coming upon a lucky break that points in an unexpected direction. With seemingly authentic glimpses of a grim gay/criminal subculture: competent, mildly interesting British police-procedure--from a sound if uninspired producer.