The British author Catherine Aird's name should be familiar to readers of this blog. She began writing mysteries in the mid-1960s, and - as of the time this is being posted in 2020 - she's still writing detective fiction that could easily pass for the work of a Golden Age author. Collectively, her books are known as "The Calleshire Chronicles," after the fictional English county of Calleshire where they are set.
Let's consider her book The Body Politic, originally published in 1990 and the thirteenth book in the series. It's the subject of my audio review today on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you are welcome to listen to the complete review by clicking here.
In The Body Politic, a young man named Alan Ottershaw is in deep trouble. He works for a British mining concern in the Middle Eastern sheikhdom of Lasserta. He is responsible for running over a pedestrian who ran out into the street and into the path of Ottershaw's car. This turns out to be a capital crime in Lasserta, and the government there is demanding that Ottershaw return to Lasserta to face trial and punishment there. Otherwise, say the Lassertans, they will nationalize the Anglo-Lassertan Mineral Company's facilities. This would close off a major British source for rare mined ingredients necessary for British defense.
Naturally, this has become a major issue at home and not exclusively to Ottershaw - and, frankly, there's a lot of relief when Ottershaw abruptly dies of a heart attack. Only it seems that his death may be anything but an ordinary heart attack. To try to sort out this rather critical situation becomes the job of the head of the Calleshire County Criminal Investigation Department, Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his hapless assistant, Detective Constable Crosby (who is known, more or less behind his back, as "the defective constable").
The Body Politic rather deftly combines a traditional mystery, with lots of red herrings, some wickedly funny satire of international intrigues, and plenty of wit and humor that never falls too heavily back into cozy territory. But I must admit that there was another factor involved in my deciding to write this review. It was written while we were all practicing social distancing, as they say, because of the ongoing pandemic virus. So please consider the following quote, from one of the characters in The Body Politic, speaking to Inspector Sloan:
“Can’t be too careful, can you, Inspector, with all these new diseases about. Get rid of one like smallpox and up pops Aids. Seems there’s always going to be a plague around of one sort or another.”
Written 20 years ago – and, alas, still timely today.
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