Least of Evils

May 7, 2012
Reason and insight can still be the detective’s greatest weapons, as shown in Gregson’s agreeable 16th mystery featuring Lancashire Det. Chief Insp. Percy Peach (after 2011’s Merely Players). Oliver Ketley, rich, powerful, and known by the police to be involved with drugs, prostitution, and gangland killings, has moved into Thorley Grange with his Swedish trophy wife, Greta, and an entourage of staff and bodyguards. An inept burglar provides Peach with an unexpected lever to glimpse Ketley’s existence at Thorley Grange, but Ketley’s subsequent murder changes everything. Peach finds Ketley had many enemies, including a rival gangster who hired a contract killer to do in Ketley, Greta, and Greta’s former SAS officer lover. Proving whodunit is a different matter, and Peach’s careful interrogation of suspects and Ketley’s household staff paves the way to a surprising and satisfying solution.

Starred review from August 1, 2012
A foiled robbery pits DCI Percy Peach (Merely Players, 2011, etc.) against a wolf in philanthropist's clothing. Locals in Brunton regard Oliver Ketley as a benefactor, little suspecting that his generous donations to a host of local charities are funded by a chain of drug and prostitution operations he runs with an iron fist. Eddie Barton feels the weight of that fist when he has the audacity to break into Thorley Grange and make off with a bagful of Mrs. Ketley's jewelry. Even after Ketley's bodyguards shoot Barton, leaving him wounded in the road, Barton won't grass, no matter how hard Peach, eager to get some dirt on Ketley, presses the young thug. Soon enough, though, the Grange opens wide to the local constabulary when Ketley is found in his Bentley, shot through the head. And much as they'd love to pin this one on Ketley's hit man, George French, Peach soon learns that there are just too many suspects for him to focus only on the most desirable. Ketley's younger wife, Greta, certainly fits in the frame, as does her lover, Martin Price, a former member of Britain's secret service. The field is so large that Peach and his bagman, DS Clyde Northcott, simply can't handle the volume. So against department practice, Peach enlists the aid of his former sergeant and current wife, DS Lucy Peach. Peach is a formidable opponent whose insight and persistence earn him top honors among British procedurals.

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May 1, 2012
Oliver Ketley appears to most citizens of Brunton, England, to be a rich and generous benefactor and a supporter of good causes. But what the Bruntonites don't know is that behind his good-deed guise lurks a brutal, cold-blooded gang lord, who oversees most of the drugs, prostitution, and human-trafficking in the area. DCI Percy Peach is well aware of this fact, so he has mixed feelings when Ketley is found shot to death. There are plenty of suspects, from Ketley's much younger wife and her lover to a rival gang lord to old enemies and even the staff of Ketley's country estate. Peach's boss and a perpetual thorn in the detective's side, Thomas Bulstrode Tucker, is complicating matters as usual by demanding immediate results. Gregson plays his readers fiendishly, convincing them they know whodunit from early on, then springing a last-minute surprise that adds the final zing to this cleverly plotted, capably written, darkly humorous procedural.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)