A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss is the first in the Constable Twitten Mystery series.
The Plot
Brighton, 1957. Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman by the sea. No criminals, no crime, no stress.
So it’s really rather annoying when an ambitious – not to mention irritating – new constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries. And it’s even more annoying when, after Constable Twitten is despatched to the theatre for the night, he sits next to a vicious theatre critic who is promptly shot dead part way through the opening night of a new play.
It seems Brighton may be in need of a police force after all.
Review
There was so much wrong with this book, I had to force myself to read it to the end. Friends suggested I just read the last chapter, but I dismissed them. I wanted to see how all the loose ends tied up.
And you know what? The loose ends were tied up by someone telling a character what the loose ends were and how they tied up!
So the final solution was not down to clever detection but relied on someone spilling the beans.
Not a good way to end a murder mystery story. As a reader I felt cheated. I like reading a book and trying to work out who did it before our “investigator” does. And while I did work out the secret surrounding the crime boss a lot earlier on that anyone in the story, having to have the gaps in the story explained, without there being any clues to them within the story, was a no-no.
All in all, a very unsatisfying read. I do not recommend this book and will not be rushing to buy the next books in the series.
However, if you want to see what it is like for yourself, and check I’m not exaggerating, the book is available from Amazon and City Adventurers Solve The Murder.
The City Adventurers love reading about mystery, so we’ve started our own book club.