Surrender Value

Inspector Kentworthy #8

by John Buxton Hilton

Recently retired from Scotland Yard, Inspector Kenworthy investigates the apparent suicide of a respectable teacher and discovers surprising undercurrents in the teacher's quiet English village and in the emerging portrait of the respectable teacher

Genres: Mystery

153 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

John Buxton Hilton was a British crime writer. After his war service in the army he became an Inspector of schools, before retiring in 1970 to take up full-time writing.

He wrote the Superintendent Simon Kenworthy series and the Inspector Thomas Brunt series, as well as the Inspector Mosley series under the pseudonym John Greenwood. Hilton died in Norwich.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Is prim little Susan Shires the sort of schoolgirl who would go off for a romantic tryst with one of her teachers? Is John Everard -- quaintly old-fashioned and, according to his wife, in failing health -- someone who would seduce a sixteen-year-old student? If not, then why have they both vanished at the same time? What begins as a missing persons case for Inspector Kenworthy soon turns into a case of murder when a body is discovered. The clothes belong to Susan Shires ... but the body belongs to someone else!
~~back cover

This was a good plot: the discrepancies not resolved until the very end, keeping the reader and the police guessing and puzzled. I quite enjoyed it.

[barrieboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surrender Value is my first JBH book and is about an ex-Police Superintendant Kenworthy taking on his first private assignment after retiring from the police. Well, I wouldn't exactly say it was gripping, far from it, in fact. Jumping about all over the country (UK) trying and succeeding in confusing me...and then a bit of flitting around Europe. When I'd finished it, there were a few unanswered questions, and I do wonder whether it was all worth the bother. I've upgraded it from one to two stars simply because there was no foul language - my pet hate!

[Kacper Nedza · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 stars) Not perfect but a lovely little mystery with expertly drawn thumbnail sketches of characters and intriguing relationships. A delight.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

must be on a bad book binge....I normally like the Inspector Kenworthy mysteries. This one just seemed very disjointed to me. Jumping from scene to scene. I stuck with it to the end, tho'. Two and a half stars.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even rate this book because I've completely forgotten it.