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Inspector Quantrill #6
Who Saw Him Die ?
For whom the bell tolls. — Cuthbert "Clanger" Bell, the town drunk, died exactly as everyone in Breckham Market had he staggered out of his favorite pub and into the path of an oncoming car. Three respected citizens witnessed the incident, and all called it an accident. But Eunice Bell, the dead man's sister, demanded that Chief Inspector Quantrill investigate her brother's murder. With no evidence and no real inclination to pursue the charge, Quantrill -- his usual enthusiasm for investigation dimmed by his troubled marriage and his growing desire for the attractive Sergeant Hilary Lloyd -- didn't expect Miss Bell's accusation to lead anywhere... certainly not to a brutal murder or, for Quantrill himself, to the tragic results of love and desire.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Radley
24 books3 followersSheila Mary Robinson was born and brought up in rural Northamptonshire, one of the fortunate means-tested generation whose further education was free. She went from her village school via high school to London University, where she read history.
She served for nine years as an education officer in the Women’s Royal Air Force, then worked variously as a teacher, a clerk in a shoe factory, a civil servant and in advertising. In the 1960s she opted out of conventional work and joined her partner in running a Norfolk village store and post office, where she began writing fiction in her spare time. Her first books, written as Hester Rowan, were three romantic novels; she then took to crime, and wrote 10 crime novels as Sheila Radley.
She served for nine years as an education officer in the Women’s Royal Air Force, then worked variously as a teacher, a clerk in a shoe factory, a civil servant and in advertising. In the 1960s she opted out of conventional work and joined her partner in running a Norfolk village store and post office, where she began writing fiction in her spare time. Her first books, written as Hester Rowan, were three romantic novels; she then took to crime, and wrote 10 crime novels as Sheila Radley.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 2, 2012
I discovered Sheila Radley purely by chance. I was in a charity shop looking at books on a sale table – 3 for £1. I had two and I was looking for a third when an elderly paperback crime novel with a penguin on the cover caught my eye. It looked very promising, in a post golden age – village – police procedural kind of way, and so I decided to take a chance.
When I got home and looked up the author I was encouraged to see that her books had been brought back into print – by Felony & Mayhem in the USA and by Bello Books in the UK – and that I had the eighth book in a series of ten.
I usually try to read series in order, but when I knew that two such interesting publishers held the author in high regard, when I saw a fascinating scenario, I knew that I couldn’t push this book to the side while I hunted down the books that came before.
“His name was Cuthbert Redvers Fullerton Bell, but everyone in Breckham Market knew him as Clanger. He was fifty-two years old, and a bachelor. For most of his adult life he had been acknowledged and respected as the town’s principal drunk. And now he was dead.
There was no mystery about his death. It occurred in public, in the soft damp light of afternoon on a mild day in November. Three eye-witnesses saw him emerge unsteadily from The Boot, his favorite pub, at closing time and stand swaying at the edge of the pavement for a few moments before stepping out into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The driver, who was travelling down the one-way street at a lawful twenty-seven miles an hour, hadn’t a chance of avoiding him.”
There really was no case to answer, but after the inquest the dead man’s sister called in the police.
She said that the man driving the car wasn’t telling the truth. He said he was a newcomer to the town and that he hadn’t known Clanger. She said that as a child he had spent holidays with his grandparents, who kept a shop in Breckham Market. That he had played with Cuthbert, until something happened – she could not or would not say what – her father had thrashed the boys, and stopped them seeing each other. And that he had come back and murdered her brother.
It seemed unlikely, it seemed impossible to prove one way or the other, but the police had to investigate, and so they set about interviewing anyone who might cast more light on events.
As Sheila Radley follow those interviews I realised how good she was, how very well she created a cast of utterly believable characters.
The man who was driving the car had sold his business, to start a new life with a new wife. They were very happy.
She had left a jealous, possessive man. He was a Roman Catholic and he refused to accept their marriage was over. They had a teenage son: he was pleased that they had made the break, that his mother was happy, but he had doubts about his step-father and he was concerned about what his father might do.
He had left the wife who supported him as he built his business, and their two teenage daughters. She wasn’t best pleased that he had left them with virtually nothing, had given her no credit for what he did, had abandoned hi children.
A business partner, who had taken thing on trust and been left with nothing, felt cheated too.
And, of course, there was the dead man’s sister, a proud upright woman, who had lived in one part of the family home while her brother lived, very differently, in another part.
They were so well drawn, the details were so right, that they could have been real, I could have been reading about them in the local paper, and they were fascinating. Because I knew that somewhere there had to be the answer to that unanswerable question.
The police knew that too. An inspector, maybe in the throes of a mid-life crisis, at odds with his wife and son and paying rather too much attention to his sergeant. She was a young widow, learning to cope with her situation and making her work the centre of her life.
They were just as well drawn, just as believable. I’m inclined to believe that there’s an interesting ongoing storyline underpinning this series.
Now, as things stood, police work wasn’t going to solve this. Something had to happen. And something did. A robbery. A shooting. And a terrible accident.
The police team changed, and a new man found new angles of enquiry.
The answers, of course, lay in the past, and everything linked together beautifully. The ending wasn’t nearly as elegant as the beginning. A little too much drama, a great piece of luck … but it was right.
I can easily forgive an author who can construct a good plot and bring it to life with such perfectly realised characters small things like that.
And she offered an inspired post script that showed another side of the story, and what happened next.
This book proved to be a very lucky find: a mystery built on classic lines with clever plotting, fine pacing, and true understanding of character.
And, of course, Sheila Radley is an author I hope I’ll bump into again.
When I got home and looked up the author I was encouraged to see that her books had been brought back into print – by Felony & Mayhem in the USA and by Bello Books in the UK – and that I had the eighth book in a series of ten.
I usually try to read series in order, but when I knew that two such interesting publishers held the author in high regard, when I saw a fascinating scenario, I knew that I couldn’t push this book to the side while I hunted down the books that came before.
“His name was Cuthbert Redvers Fullerton Bell, but everyone in Breckham Market knew him as Clanger. He was fifty-two years old, and a bachelor. For most of his adult life he had been acknowledged and respected as the town’s principal drunk. And now he was dead.
There was no mystery about his death. It occurred in public, in the soft damp light of afternoon on a mild day in November. Three eye-witnesses saw him emerge unsteadily from The Boot, his favorite pub, at closing time and stand swaying at the edge of the pavement for a few moments before stepping out into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The driver, who was travelling down the one-way street at a lawful twenty-seven miles an hour, hadn’t a chance of avoiding him.”
There really was no case to answer, but after the inquest the dead man’s sister called in the police.
She said that the man driving the car wasn’t telling the truth. He said he was a newcomer to the town and that he hadn’t known Clanger. She said that as a child he had spent holidays with his grandparents, who kept a shop in Breckham Market. That he had played with Cuthbert, until something happened – she could not or would not say what – her father had thrashed the boys, and stopped them seeing each other. And that he had come back and murdered her brother.
It seemed unlikely, it seemed impossible to prove one way or the other, but the police had to investigate, and so they set about interviewing anyone who might cast more light on events.
As Sheila Radley follow those interviews I realised how good she was, how very well she created a cast of utterly believable characters.
The man who was driving the car had sold his business, to start a new life with a new wife. They were very happy.
She had left a jealous, possessive man. He was a Roman Catholic and he refused to accept their marriage was over. They had a teenage son: he was pleased that they had made the break, that his mother was happy, but he had doubts about his step-father and he was concerned about what his father might do.
He had left the wife who supported him as he built his business, and their two teenage daughters. She wasn’t best pleased that he had left them with virtually nothing, had given her no credit for what he did, had abandoned hi children.
A business partner, who had taken thing on trust and been left with nothing, felt cheated too.
And, of course, there was the dead man’s sister, a proud upright woman, who had lived in one part of the family home while her brother lived, very differently, in another part.
They were so well drawn, the details were so right, that they could have been real, I could have been reading about them in the local paper, and they were fascinating. Because I knew that somewhere there had to be the answer to that unanswerable question.
The police knew that too. An inspector, maybe in the throes of a mid-life crisis, at odds with his wife and son and paying rather too much attention to his sergeant. She was a young widow, learning to cope with her situation and making her work the centre of her life.
They were just as well drawn, just as believable. I’m inclined to believe that there’s an interesting ongoing storyline underpinning this series.
Now, as things stood, police work wasn’t going to solve this. Something had to happen. And something did. A robbery. A shooting. And a terrible accident.
The police team changed, and a new man found new angles of enquiry.
The answers, of course, lay in the past, and everything linked together beautifully. The ending wasn’t nearly as elegant as the beginning. A little too much drama, a great piece of luck … but it was right.
I can easily forgive an author who can construct a good plot and bring it to life with such perfectly realised characters small things like that.
And she offered an inspired post script that showed another side of the story, and what happened next.
This book proved to be a very lucky find: a mystery built on classic lines with clever plotting, fine pacing, and true understanding of character.
And, of course, Sheila Radley is an author I hope I’ll bump into again.
September 10, 2014
I am enjoyed this book enough that I would like to read more in the series.
Read
October 8, 2018"When Breckham Market's local drunk, Clanger Bell, is run down by a passing car, the coroner's verdict is that the driver is innocent: Three witnesses agree that John Goodrum had had no chance to stop -- Clanger Bell simply stepped in front of the oncoming car. Local residents knew enough to watch out for the inebriated Clanger, but John Goodrum was new to Breckham Market's peculiar ways.
"John has just moved to town with his attractive second wife, Felicity. She's more educated and refined than John, but they seem to be happy together -- in fact, they're apparently deeply in love. But that love has had a price. John left behind a bitter first wife and two angry daughters. They had toiled for yars in John's poultry business until he finally sold out and made a fortune. Now he's gone on to genteel respectability with Felicity, taking his money with him.
"Clanger Bell's death could ruin everything for John and Felicity, so they're greatly relieved with the coroner absolves John of all guilt. Unfortunately, however, not everyone believes in John's innocence. Clanger's elder sister, Eunice, call in Detective Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill and his attractive sergeant, Hilary Lloyd, to register her suspicions. John Goodrum has a motive, she says. He deliberately killed her brother.
"With little evidence available, Quantrill and Hilary Lloyd must probe a crime of great psychological subtlety, a crime with roots far in the past. Quantrill must also explore his feelings for Hilary. as he ponders his obligations to his increasingly troubled marriage.
"Rich in characterization and sense of place, Who Saw Him Die? presents complex people faced with difficult moral choices. As Quantrill and his associates close in on their quarry, we marvel anew at the superb talent of one of our premier crime writers."
~~front & back flaps
Very enthralling plot, with a bit too graphic a killing for my taste. But fascinating: how DID jack Goodrum think his actions would save him from his immoral past? Can someone of his ilk really change to a loving husband and middle class gentleman? Can Felicity really be that naive?
This one ends in cliffhanger, and also sports a guest appearance of our Martin Tait -- as egocentric and arrogant as ever. Lovely to watch Hilary deal with him, put him in his place and he not recognize that he's fighting above his weight.
"John has just moved to town with his attractive second wife, Felicity. She's more educated and refined than John, but they seem to be happy together -- in fact, they're apparently deeply in love. But that love has had a price. John left behind a bitter first wife and two angry daughters. They had toiled for yars in John's poultry business until he finally sold out and made a fortune. Now he's gone on to genteel respectability with Felicity, taking his money with him.
"Clanger Bell's death could ruin everything for John and Felicity, so they're greatly relieved with the coroner absolves John of all guilt. Unfortunately, however, not everyone believes in John's innocence. Clanger's elder sister, Eunice, call in Detective Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill and his attractive sergeant, Hilary Lloyd, to register her suspicions. John Goodrum has a motive, she says. He deliberately killed her brother.
"With little evidence available, Quantrill and Hilary Lloyd must probe a crime of great psychological subtlety, a crime with roots far in the past. Quantrill must also explore his feelings for Hilary. as he ponders his obligations to his increasingly troubled marriage.
"Rich in characterization and sense of place, Who Saw Him Die? presents complex people faced with difficult moral choices. As Quantrill and his associates close in on their quarry, we marvel anew at the superb talent of one of our premier crime writers."
~~front & back flaps
Very enthralling plot, with a bit too graphic a killing for my taste. But fascinating: how DID jack Goodrum think his actions would save him from his immoral past? Can someone of his ilk really change to a loving husband and middle class gentleman? Can Felicity really be that naive?
This one ends in cliffhanger, and also sports a guest appearance of our Martin Tait -- as egocentric and arrogant as ever. Lovely to watch Hilary deal with him, put him in his place and he not recognize that he's fighting above his weight.
May 31, 2023
Poor old "Clanger" Bell, the town drunk stepped out of his favorite pub and right into the path of a car driven by Jack Goodrum, a self-made businessman whose youth were spent helping in a relative's butcher shop in Breckham Market.
Fond as the police and community were about old Clanger, they knew this was the death that would happen sooner or later. Even his sister expected it — but after it happens, Eunice Bell demands that the police investigate her brother's murder. No evidence but she does come up with an interesting motive that forces Chief Inspector Quantrill to investigate.
Quantrill's attention is being splintered — by the Clanger case, his troubled marriage and his attraction for the attractive Sgt. Hilary Lloyd — and very quickly he wants to eliminate the case. But a second death has a way of forcing its way into the forefront of everything else.
A good story with strong plot, strong characters and plenty of red herrings and other surprises.
Fond as the police and community were about old Clanger, they knew this was the death that would happen sooner or later. Even his sister expected it — but after it happens, Eunice Bell demands that the police investigate her brother's murder. No evidence but she does come up with an interesting motive that forces Chief Inspector Quantrill to investigate.
Quantrill's attention is being splintered — by the Clanger case, his troubled marriage and his attraction for the attractive Sgt. Hilary Lloyd — and very quickly he wants to eliminate the case. But a second death has a way of forcing its way into the forefront of everything else.
A good story with strong plot, strong characters and plenty of red herrings and other surprises.
September 9, 2018
The town drunk gets run over, but events show it was not an accident. the overarching theme is divorce--two sets of couples complicate events as their children deal with the marriage breakup.
January 11, 2013
Clanger Bell, well-known local drunk, is run over and killed by new resident, Jack Goodrum. As everyone, including the police, have been expecting this to happen because of Clanger’s well known habit of jay walking when under the influence no one is surprised. The Coroner quickly decides, thanks to three reliable witnesses, that Jack had no chance to avoid Clanger and the death is ruled to have been accidental. But Clanger’s sister is not happy with the verdict and contacts the police. DCI Quantrill and DS Hilary Lloyd find themselves trying to investigate a murder case that they don’t believe in. In the meantime Quantrill is having problems with his son and thinks he is falling in love with Hilary.
Dysfunctional families, people with irrational obsessions and a case which may date back more than thirty years keeps everyone busy in this dark and well written crime story from this underrated author. Set in Suffolk this is a complex story with many ramifications and it will keep even the most observant reader guessing. I enjoyed it and found it kept me reading throughout one evening and I was disappointed when I got to the end.
The book contains many well drawn characters and I like DCI Quantrill for all his faults and Hilary Lloyd has developed into an interesting character too. Those who read the first two books in the series will be interested to see how newly promoted DCI Martin Tait is developing as he plays a part in this book. If you like your crime novels in the conventional mode but with some darker aspects too then give this interesting series a try.
Dysfunctional families, people with irrational obsessions and a case which may date back more than thirty years keeps everyone busy in this dark and well written crime story from this underrated author. Set in Suffolk this is a complex story with many ramifications and it will keep even the most observant reader guessing. I enjoyed it and found it kept me reading throughout one evening and I was disappointed when I got to the end.
The book contains many well drawn characters and I like DCI Quantrill for all his faults and Hilary Lloyd has developed into an interesting character too. Those who read the first two books in the series will be interested to see how newly promoted DCI Martin Tait is developing as he plays a part in this book. If you like your crime novels in the conventional mode but with some darker aspects too then give this interesting series a try.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews