This poisonous tale is a deadly festive treat: Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth, Murder
Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth (British Library Crime Classics £10.99, 256pp)
The setting for this whodunit from the 1950s is an idyllic English village where the narrator, Liane Crauford, is spending the run-up to Christmas with the family of the local doctor.
But the mood sours with the death of a cantankerous retired judge.
While no one regrets his passing, an inquest hinting at murder by poison has Liane testing her investigative skills against the deductive logic of an urbane Scotland Yard detective.
A generous scattering of clues, not to mention some rather high-handed police attempts to expose the killer, keep the reader guessing.
A gifted writer, Gilruth fully justifies her comeback.
Murder on the Great Northern Railway is available now from the Mail Bookshop
Murder on the Great Northern Railway by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby £22, 320pp)
It’s full steam ahead for the railway detectives after a priceless silver model of Lincoln Cathedral is hijacked and the guard on the train shot dead.
While the Church reluctantly agrees to pay a huge ransom for the return of the treasure, Inspector Colbeck and his trusty sidekick, Sergeant Leeming, focus on tracking down the robbers.
A strong plot takes off at pace though Marston skips over the 19th-century period detail that would make the story more convincing.
Nonetheless, there are memorable characters, not least the pompous Superintendent Tallis who, on previous outings, has been more hindrance than help in solving a crime. For this venture, he makes amends by finding the evidence to clinch another triumph for the railway detectives.
Maigret’s Holiday by Georges Simenon (Penguin Design Collection £9.99, 208pp)
As one of the lead titles in this splendid new edition of the Simenon classics, Maigret’s Holiday has the chief inspector enjoying the sun until Madame Maigret is taken into hospital for an emergency operation. It is on one of his daily visits that Maigret hears of a patient whose last words were a delirium of family abuse and complicity to murder.
Suspicion fastens on an arrogant society doctor whose home is a virtual prison for his young wife. Up against a formidable adversary who relies on status and money for protection, evidence mounts of one or even two murders driven by obsessive jealousy. Maigret has to win a battle of wills before more blood is shed.
Simenon is a tension building crime writer like no other.