Night Ferry to Death -- Patrica Moyes, 1985
This was the 17th of 19 mysteries starring Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Tibbett and his unflappable wife Emmy. At only about 180 pages,
the story moves quickly and ends with a surprise. Moyes’ fluently
written books are about as cozy as I can handle. A ferry from the Netherlands to the UK serves
as the equivalent of a locked room. Also cozy: the crimes are bloodless, the
plots only mildly contrived, and by the 1980s Agatha Christie-type writers had
dumped stereotyping. Red herrings get dragged across the trail and Henry
gathers all the suspects together in a room. Henry and Emmy make an
interesting couple, both good-natured and nice in that gentle English way we
like to see in whodunnits. Stable marriage, killer caught, order restored, bourgeois proprieties observed -- what more could we ask?
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