Packham & Mitchell #1

Up and Down – Mat Coward

This 2000 mystery was the first story in the Don Packham and Frank Mitchell series. The books are usually set in the nicer suburbs of London. This story grabs the attention of the reader who knows gardening because the murder scene is a garden allotment, an area of land that local people lease from a municipal council for growing fruits and vegetables or ornamental plants or keeping fowl, rabbits and bees.

Allotments are communal places where people share water with the other plot renters. So when resources are discussed in the allotment association, it is easy to imagine that under pressure unlovely peasant traits may come to the fore: tribalism, avarice, self-interest, ignorance, and conceit. Called in to investigate the murder of a long-time allotmenteer, Detective Inspector Packham and Constable Mitchell interview a variety of persons of interests, of all ages, dispositions, and social classes. I sometimes had the vague feeling that English class subtleties implied by a suburban north London setting were escaping my dim American understanding.

DI Packham and PC Mitchell make a comic pair because they are as different as chalk and cheese. Packham suffers some degree of manic depression. One day he is upbeat to the point of wired, but the next day he is withdrawn, hopeless, cynical, and angry. Newly promoted Mitchell is optimistic about life since he has a sensible wife and baby on the way. He’s at loss dealing with Packham’s mood swings, but he also thinks he can learn a lot about detecting from Packham’s shrewdness and experience.

So, the plausible plot moves along briskly with numerous laughs and wisecracks. There is a certain amount of satirical lashing out at random targets, the author is especially cranky about what 20 years of Iron Lady ideology “I’ve got mine, screw you” have done to core cultural values.  The political irrationality of the threatened closure of the allotment site to build a yet another retail park (in American: strip mall) is cleverly woven into the story. Packham comments on the greed and spinelessness of leaders while Mitchell wonders if he some kind of lefty tree-hugger. It’s a hoot.

The plotting is gently paced with well-structured chapters that are neither too long or too short. Multiple red herrings draw the reader in to connect information from interviews and re-interviews. The conclusion has a one-two punch that is satisfying.

Mysteries that followed this story include In and Out (2001), Over and Under (2004), Deep and Crisp (2004), and Open and Closed (2005). Don't let this naming convention, an artifact of marketing, put you off giving this series a try.