Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome to our August/Sept 24 buddy read of Passing Strange Published in 1980 this is the ninth book in the Sloan and Crosby series.

In this gripping mystery by CWA Diamond Dagger winner Catherine Aird, the village spinster dies behind a fortune teller’s booth, and Calleshire’s greatest detective looks into the future—and sees justice

The annual Horticultural Society Flower Show would have gone off without a hitch were it not for one very pesky murder.

When nurse Joyce Cooper goes missing from the parish’s fortune-telling booth at the flower fair, her friends at the local church are immediately concerned. It’s not like this old lady, who plays the organ during service every Sunday without fail, and who, it’s told, lives for the purpose of helping others, to disappear without notice. So when she’s found strangled to death under a tarp, the community is thrown into an uproar.

Who better to calm the crowd than Calleshire’s greatest detective? Alongside his bumbling sidekick, Constable Crosby, C. D. Sloan runs through the bizarre list of suspects—the daughter of a deceased anthropologist, a greedy developer, a jealous tomato gardener, and a set of wealthy farmers—to find out who would have benefited most from the beloved nurse’s death. What he finds will astonish the entire village.

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

The ongoing joke over the tomatoes was annoying me at one point , and I had worked out the murderer a lot earlier than the finale denouement, so wasn't quite as good as the earlier books in the series.

Same here - the murder happened, then Sloan went down the inheritance law rabbit hole - seemed disjointed and overly complex, almost losing sight of the murder. Also felt there were too many characters to keep track of, I wasn’t sure who mattered.

I enjoyed it every bit as much as the other in the series. Perhaps because I listened while puttering around the house, I never felt it got bogged down about the heritance. Nor did I identify the murderer ... once again may be because I was not fully involved.

I so like Sloan's outlook and Aird's dry humor.

The ending kind of came out of nowhere-I mean it just seemed shorter than I expected it to be. I also got a wee bit lost in the plot somewhere-perhaps as I was reading while travelling so some distractions However like Sandy I also like Sloan's outlook the the humour so I will be sticking with the series.

I also didn't think this was quite as good as some of the others, although I was pleased that Sloan seemed to get on a bit better with Crosby in this one.

I was slightly disappointed that the whole inheritance thing fizzled out at the end. I did enjoy the explanation of the tomatoes and wire elements, though - something I could imagine being a storyline in an episode of Midsomer Murders!

The inheritance didn't completely fizzle out. The murderer needed the estate to go to the elderly lady who would not be checking the books.

Sandy wrote: "The inheritance didn't completely fizzle out. The murderer needed the estate to go to the elderly lady who would not be checking the books."

That's true, but I was thinking there might be more of an issue about whether Richenda really was who she said she was - although I suppose that just means I fell for a red herring!

The inheritance storyline also had me wondering when DNA tests came in - I looked it up and apparently it was around 1988, although earlier versions of paternity tests relying on blood groups were around from the 1920s.

Whereas I believed Richenda and was looking for other possible inheritors lurking in the bushes.

I just finished The Rose Arbor (excellent), set in the late 1960's and DNA would have been useful but never got a mention. And, from my childhood in the 1950's, I vaguely remember Frank Sinatra being brought up on a paternity suit. I asked my father how God could have made such a mistake if the parents weren't married. I often wonder what he answered and his later discussion with my mother.

I have finished this now and I quite enjoyed it. I liked the headmaster working out who had seen what and going to find the errant schoolboys.

I was disappointed to hear nothing new about Mrs Sloan and the new infant son.

Me, too! I had to stop and think, wasn’t it in a very recent book they had a baby?

Yes, I thought the same - let's hope we get an update on Sloan's family in the next book!

I have to admit that I started the next book by mistake and read a few chapters before thinking, 'isn't this meant to be set in a fete?' Very stupid of me, but I do think the next book had a much stronger start than this one, although I enjoy the characters and so am happy to read even a slightly weaker book.

Good to hear that the next book has a stronger start, Susan. Good point about the headteacher, that was fun

Yay, looking forward to it!