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DEAD LETTERS is two lovely books in one. Itıs the story of two very different murders that are told to us via emails by Scotland's newest Detective Sergeant Honoria Potterton-Phipps. Through her emails we also learn about her life and new job, her friend Jeremy who's in the middle East doing research and whose new Labrador Retriever Pippa Honoria has taken in until Jeremy and his family gets back. The emails also introduce us to her wealthy landowner and captain of industry father and her fiance Sandy, a fellow copper who has been sent to the Los Angeles Police Department on official business. By the second story Honoria, or Honeypot as she's known to many, has just married. In the first murder, a man is shot while fishing on a lake and is found still sitting in his floating boat a day later. There are no forensic clues, no real crime location, and a surfeit of suspects, all of them sharing only small town squabbles with the deceased. Pippa, the Labrador Retriever, whose bad habit of coprophagia (look it up, you'll shudder) helps the case along and paves the way to solving the crime. The second murder takes place a while later, after Honey's wedding to her fiance and a promotion to another location, but it brings the now Detective Sergeant Laird back to her first posting. In charge of police dogs, she's to help investigate the case of a missing couple who were living together but both married to other people. Before long Pippa, now Honey's own dog, uses her sensitive nose to find a shallow grave. The remains were also burned and then the onset of the harsh Scottish weather stops the police from discovering how many bodies were buried. Though from a terribly wealthy family, Honey does her best to get along with her police mates, and doesn't let on she's so well educated. Though her father does supplement her salary quite a bit, he decreed that she made her way in a career and she surprised him by joining the police. Her natural quick mind, sense of humor and ability to read and get along with all sorts of people makes her a top-notch detective. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Author Gerald Hammond has created a first-rate new female detective in Honey. She's funny with a sharp, but never catty, wit and she's all for doing her fair share of any dirty hands-on jobs. She's an intelligent woman who doesn't fall apart or let her emotions get the best of her. A young and happily married modern thinking Miss Marple, she relies on her mental abilities and finely honed questions to help solve the crimes. I hope there are many DS Honoria Potterton-Phipps Laird mysteries in the future.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, July 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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