Laid Dead an Inspector Angus Straun Mystery

by Barry Cork

A police officer, best-selling novelist, and golf addict, Inspector Angus Straun becomes involved with his ex-wife's boyfriend, one of Europe's wealthiest men, when the friend's golfing partner dies mysteriously and a golf pro disappears with valuable golf equipment

Genres: Mystery

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ralph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inspector Straum: police inspector, bestselling novelist, Maserati enthusiast, golf champion, gourmand, conflicted and filled with angst...and the teller of his own story. Perhaps author Barry Cork asked too much of his main character. The protagonist might have seemed more interesting under a more objective eye because there would still be a streak of mystery, a bit of void in his make-up that we could fill with our own observations and evaluations; instead the story is told first-person POV, and the good Inspector is not up to the task: he is not observant enough, not critical enough, not skeptical enough...Straum is a bit shallow. The inclusion of golf as a motif does not enhance the novel. Ian Fleming was a great golf writer, and the game between Bond and Auric Goldfinger is every bit as enthralling as any of Bond's most action-oriented escapades (maybe more), but Barry Cork is not Ian Fleming, so the interludes on the links become low points between the more interesting points in what could have been a crackling crime novel. So, "Laid Dead" becomes just an okay novel to read while recovering from an illness.