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Chief Superintendent Gently #6
Gently in the Sun
The heat is on when a beautiful young woman is found dead on a beach at the height of summer
Every man in Hiverton knows Rachel Campion. She is the most gorgeous girl to have turned up in the fishing village in living memory. When she is discovered lying dead on the beach, Gently joins the throngs of summer visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the seaside in the midst of a summer heatwave - and as the temperature soars, the mystery deepens.
The long-buried skeleton of a woman is unearthed close to where Rachel's body was found and Gently suddenly has the riddle of two mysterious deaths to solve. Many of the locals, including the secretive brotherhood of fishermen, seem particularly reluctant to help Gently answer the vital Why was Rachel Campion murdered? How is the old skeleton connected with the new crime? And who is the murderer?
Every man in Hiverton knows Rachel Campion. She is the most gorgeous girl to have turned up in the fishing village in living memory. When she is discovered lying dead on the beach, Gently joins the throngs of summer visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the seaside in the midst of a summer heatwave - and as the temperature soars, the mystery deepens.
The long-buried skeleton of a woman is unearthed close to where Rachel's body was found and Gently suddenly has the riddle of two mysterious deaths to solve. Many of the locals, including the secretive brotherhood of fishermen, seem particularly reluctant to help Gently answer the vital Why was Rachel Campion murdered? How is the old skeleton connected with the new crime? And who is the murderer?
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
33 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Alan Hunter
105 books62 followersAlan Hunter was born at Hoveton, Norfolk and went to school across the River Bure in Wroxham. He left school at 14 and worked on his father's farm near Norwich. He enjoyed dinghy sailing on the Norfolk Broads, wrote natural history notes for the local newspaper, and wrote poetry, some of which was published while he was in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 24, 2016
Coming back to the George Gently series after a couple of weeks’ break, I was comfortably happy to find myself back in his fictionalised England of the 1950s.
As the title indicates, a heatwave has hit CI Gently’s stomping grounds. It’s a real scorcher, too; his colleagues back in London are amusing themselves frying eggs and bacon on the paving slabs outside the station (presumably they have nothing better to do). If that’s not enough to prove to you how hot it is, Gently himself, usually a pretty formal dresser, has bought himself a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, flip flops and sunglasses to wear while investigating his latest case!
The case itself involves a woman’s corpse discovered on the beach in the early hours of the morning and involves all the twists, turns, red herrings and good, old fashioned police work I’ve come to expect from this series. A highlight was Gently and his faithful sidekick Sergeant Dutt trying to talk one of the suspects out of throwing himself off a church bell tower.
This was a solid entry to the series and a fun read. I’m glad I’ve got the next volume on my Kindle, though, as trying to read this paperback copy really made me realise my eyes can’t cope with the small print of a regular novel anymore. If I read a paper book again in future it’ll definitely have to be a large print copy. Stupid eyes… grrr...
As the title indicates, a heatwave has hit CI Gently’s stomping grounds. It’s a real scorcher, too; his colleagues back in London are amusing themselves frying eggs and bacon on the paving slabs outside the station (presumably they have nothing better to do). If that’s not enough to prove to you how hot it is, Gently himself, usually a pretty formal dresser, has bought himself a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, flip flops and sunglasses to wear while investigating his latest case!
The case itself involves a woman’s corpse discovered on the beach in the early hours of the morning and involves all the twists, turns, red herrings and good, old fashioned police work I’ve come to expect from this series. A highlight was Gently and his faithful sidekick Sergeant Dutt trying to talk one of the suspects out of throwing himself off a church bell tower.
This was a solid entry to the series and a fun read. I’m glad I’ve got the next volume on my Kindle, though, as trying to read this paperback copy really made me realise my eyes can’t cope with the small print of a regular novel anymore. If I read a paper book again in future it’ll definitely have to be a large print copy. Stupid eyes… grrr...
May 2, 2023
Not My Gently
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell hardcover original (1959).
Gently is called in from Scotland Yard CID's Central Office to investigate a murder in a coastal town which has the local police baffled. Instead of taking a serious tone, Gently starts off by acting as if he is on vacation. For most of the novel he interacts with the locals, but never seems to get a clue until he becomes intrigued by a local fisherman who leads him to an unmarked grave in the sands. The finale turns into a sea-chase, but it all ends with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™ (that is, if you like endings where the guilty are confronted and brought to justice). For me, this was a case of "Not My Gently." Also, Gently's standard go-to snack of peppermint creams, which were a regular feature in the early books of the series, do not appear.
The dust jacket of the original 1959 hardcover edition from Cassell. Image sourced from Detective Fiction.
Trivia and Link
The George Gently books were adapted as the TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here.
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell hardcover original (1959).
He bought three of the shirts of the sort he had seen the reporter wearing. They were manufactured in Hong Kong and not very expensive. One of them was printed with rich fruit-like designs in green, orange, purple, and black, another featured rock-and-roll singers, the third film actresses. If that photographer really wanted something to enliven the silly season! ‘I’d better have a hat – one of those Italian straws with the green bands. And a pair of sunglasses. Have you sandals in a broad nine fitting?’ He finished up with a bottle of sun lotion and a threepenny ice cream cornet. Nibbling at the latter he began to feel happier, in spite of the intolerable heat. … If Gently had been down there on holiday he could hardly have behaved more eccentrically. That was Dyson’s fixed impression by the time they had finished lunch. - Inspector Gently acclimates to a heat wave in a coastal town.
Gently is called in from Scotland Yard CID's Central Office to investigate a murder in a coastal town which has the local police baffled. Instead of taking a serious tone, Gently starts off by acting as if he is on vacation. For most of the novel he interacts with the locals, but never seems to get a clue until he becomes intrigued by a local fisherman who leads him to an unmarked grave in the sands. The finale turns into a sea-chase, but it all ends with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™ (that is, if you like endings where the guilty are confronted and brought to justice). For me, this was a case of "Not My Gently." Also, Gently's standard go-to snack of peppermint creams, which were a regular feature in the early books of the series, do not appear.
The dust jacket of the original 1959 hardcover edition from Cassell. Image sourced from Detective Fiction.
Trivia and Link
The George Gently books were adapted as the TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here.
April 5, 2021
Rachel Campion was a beautiful young woman who like men and whom men like a lot. She was faithful (after her fashion) to her boyfriend/boss--but he had to understand that she just couldn't help liking other men. And liked being with them. She was secretary and lover to Alfred Mixer and, though he doesn't want to admit, he was very jealous of Rachel. Anyone at the Bel-Air guest house could tell you that. And when Rachel is found strangled to death on the beach Mixer is at the top of the Devon County Constabulary's suspect list. But Mixer has an alibi of sorts and there is little real evidence, so they decide to call in the Yard.
Inspector George Gently is sent to investigate and at first it looks like the local police have tagged it right. But his seeming (to local Inspector Dyson) random questions and even more eccentric methods unearth other motives. There's the painter who lied about how well he knew Rachel--well enough, in fact, to paint a very provocative portrait of her. Then there's the two fishermen, Dawes and Hawks, who have an odd relationship to the dead woman...and to each other. And then, just as Gently thinks things are becoming clear, he discovers another corpse buried in the sand on the beach. This one is about twenty years old and it looks like Rachel's death may not be as simple as he thought.
At some point in my pre-blogging life, I read an Alan Hunter Inspector Gently novel (either Landed Gently or Death on the Heath--I'm not certain which came first) and pronounced it so good that I put him on my "To Be Found" list and over the years I've accumulated a fair number of them. I pull one off the TBR shelf every once in a while and discover that I can't figure out why I thought I needed these so much. It's not that they're bad. Most are fairly decent little mysteries and very quick reads. But they're just not all that and there are certainly other authors that I could have spent more time looking for with more exceptional results. I may have to go back and reread those books mentioned above to see if I can figure out what grabbed me initially.
This particular title is a perfectly fine outing at the beach with Gently and there are some humorous bits where he "goes tourist" and buys some outlandish shirts to wear in the summer heat. But it does leave a something to be desired in the way of actual clues--for a police procedural, there's not a whole lot of evidence-gathering and just barely enough suspect-questioning. At one point, Gently sits down beside one of the suspects. They're on a bench facing the beach. And they just sit there. Neither one says anything. they don't even really look at each other--just at the beach. And, suddenly, it all clarifies for Gently. He just knows how it all happened and who did it and everything. Does he tell us? Of course not, we've got a couple more chapters to go and one more bit that will muddy the waters and make Gently question, just briefly, whether he actually has it right. But as of that moment on the bench...he knows. If I had been given more clues to work with then maybe I would have too.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Inspector George Gently is sent to investigate and at first it looks like the local police have tagged it right. But his seeming (to local Inspector Dyson) random questions and even more eccentric methods unearth other motives. There's the painter who lied about how well he knew Rachel--well enough, in fact, to paint a very provocative portrait of her. Then there's the two fishermen, Dawes and Hawks, who have an odd relationship to the dead woman...and to each other. And then, just as Gently thinks things are becoming clear, he discovers another corpse buried in the sand on the beach. This one is about twenty years old and it looks like Rachel's death may not be as simple as he thought.
At some point in my pre-blogging life, I read an Alan Hunter Inspector Gently novel (either Landed Gently or Death on the Heath--I'm not certain which came first) and pronounced it so good that I put him on my "To Be Found" list and over the years I've accumulated a fair number of them. I pull one off the TBR shelf every once in a while and discover that I can't figure out why I thought I needed these so much. It's not that they're bad. Most are fairly decent little mysteries and very quick reads. But they're just not all that and there are certainly other authors that I could have spent more time looking for with more exceptional results. I may have to go back and reread those books mentioned above to see if I can figure out what grabbed me initially.
This particular title is a perfectly fine outing at the beach with Gently and there are some humorous bits where he "goes tourist" and buys some outlandish shirts to wear in the summer heat. But it does leave a something to be desired in the way of actual clues--for a police procedural, there's not a whole lot of evidence-gathering and just barely enough suspect-questioning. At one point, Gently sits down beside one of the suspects. They're on a bench facing the beach. And they just sit there. Neither one says anything. they don't even really look at each other--just at the beach. And, suddenly, it all clarifies for Gently. He just knows how it all happened and who did it and everything. Does he tell us? Of course not, we've got a couple more chapters to go and one more bit that will muddy the waters and make Gently question, just briefly, whether he actually has it right. But as of that moment on the bench...he knows. If I had been given more clues to work with then maybe I would have too.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
July 23, 2017
The sixth in the series featuring Inspector George Gently, sent from London as a homicide detective into Northshire (a fictional Norfolk). Although this edition of the book quotes the TV series based on the Gently character, in my view there is very little resemblance. This was first published in 1959 and is a little dated but is still a good murder mystery with a climactic ending.
July 26, 2017
I'm a big fan of this series. I certainly don't think that they're flawless, and I can easily see how it can all fall flat for a reader, as Pauline Ross describes well in her review. For me, it all comes together enough that the unrealistic qualities are fine.
As others have said, I recommend these if you like Maigret, and/or if you like a strong sense of place. If you're looking for a whodunit, these books are not like that at all.
These books are all about the sense of place, and that's about my favorite quality in a book. I have never been to East Anglia, but for a while I have loved it from afar, via books like When Marnie Was There, and four Swallows & Amazons entries, starting with Coot Club.
I've not seen the Gently TV series--the idea that they moved it out of Norfolk blows my mind. The books, through the first six or whatever this one is, are entirely a bittersweet love letter to Norfolk. A topo-anthro-pology, maybe! (I can't comment on the entire series; it went on so long that perhaps it went beyond Norfolk at some point. But so far, it's an obsessive exploration of Norfolk
There's a definite formula for the stories, and it's not so realistic in some aspects, but it's never bothered me much. Based on reading six of them so far: Gently ends up in something like a struggle of wills with the murderer. And more obliquely, with the community, too. There may be little or no physical action until the end of the book, when there's always some degree of action climax. That can feel like a funny transition, when the conflicts have been a matter of words, not guns and such, up to that point. I've gotten used to it, and the climaxes can be pretty good.
I think I can briefly note that this antagonist is interestingly different from the previous one.
I think the first books had more police procedural, but lately it's more of a psychodrama. This book in fact is like an anti-procedural, thumbing its nose at that approach. Everyone is waiting for Gently to do police stuff, but he just hangs around and watches the community dynamic. It drives them nuts, citizens and cops, too, and he enjoys that. That's the Maigret element to me, but I've haven't read enough Maigret, yet, to be an expert.
That reminds me that earlier books went overboard in building up the local cops as straw men, hectoring Gently with their aggressively wrong ideas. The last book was less bad at this; the local cops were less dumb, and their opposition was better motivated as keeping up the local image. In this book, it's not labored much at all. The regional cops are frustrated, but it's less frequent, and played more for comedy as Gently blows them off.
If you are more into atmosphere than plot-driven mystery, you might like it, too.
As others have said, I recommend these if you like Maigret, and/or if you like a strong sense of place. If you're looking for a whodunit, these books are not like that at all.
These books are all about the sense of place, and that's about my favorite quality in a book. I have never been to East Anglia, but for a while I have loved it from afar, via books like When Marnie Was There, and four Swallows & Amazons entries, starting with Coot Club.
I've not seen the Gently TV series--the idea that they moved it out of Norfolk blows my mind. The books, through the first six or whatever this one is, are entirely a bittersweet love letter to Norfolk. A topo-anthro-pology, maybe! (I can't comment on the entire series; it went on so long that perhaps it went beyond Norfolk at some point. But so far, it's an obsessive exploration of Norfolk
There's a definite formula for the stories, and it's not so realistic in some aspects, but it's never bothered me much. Based on reading six of them so far: Gently ends up in something like a struggle of wills with the murderer. And more obliquely, with the community, too. There may be little or no physical action until the end of the book, when there's always some degree of action climax. That can feel like a funny transition, when the conflicts have been a matter of words, not guns and such, up to that point. I've gotten used to it, and the climaxes can be pretty good.
I think I can briefly note that this antagonist is interestingly different from the previous one.
I think the first books had more police procedural, but lately it's more of a psychodrama. This book in fact is like an anti-procedural, thumbing its nose at that approach. Everyone is waiting for Gently to do police stuff, but he just hangs around and watches the community dynamic. It drives them nuts, citizens and cops, too, and he enjoys that. That's the Maigret element to me, but I've haven't read enough Maigret, yet, to be an expert.
That reminds me that earlier books went overboard in building up the local cops as straw men, hectoring Gently with their aggressively wrong ideas. The last book was less bad at this; the local cops were less dumb, and their opposition was better motivated as keeping up the local image. In this book, it's not labored much at all. The regional cops are frustrated, but it's less frequent, and played more for comedy as Gently blows them off.
If you are more into atmosphere than plot-driven mystery, you might like it, too.
April 12, 2015
The small fishing village of Hiverton has no crime to speak of. So when a startlingly beautiful young woman, Rachel Campion, is found dead on the beach, it causes quite a stir. Besides the summer heat wave, Rachel had raised the temperature of every man in Hiverton. Everyone, both women and men, had noticed her on holiday at the beach hotel. When Gently joins the mass of gawkers on the beach, he too is caught up in the woman's beauty. In the simmering heat Gently goes searching for answers, but no one seems to know anything. And the fisherman are a tight group, answering only to themselves and the sea.
The settings are a strong point in these mysteries. The local dialect, the patterns of speech, the way the villagers turn inward to block out the outsiders. In the same manner, the place in time that the mystery takes place is quite evident, if nothing else than in the behaviors of the village folk. No rush or hurry to these stories, it unfolds as it will, as Gently wanders the town, speaking to each in turn. The author plays fair, sharing the clues as Gently finds them. I consider this series to be more traditional than cozy. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys British mysteries, traditional mysteries, or stories set in the 1950s.
The settings are a strong point in these mysteries. The local dialect, the patterns of speech, the way the villagers turn inward to block out the outsiders. In the same manner, the place in time that the mystery takes place is quite evident, if nothing else than in the behaviors of the village folk. No rush or hurry to these stories, it unfolds as it will, as Gently wanders the town, speaking to each in turn. The author plays fair, sharing the clues as Gently finds them. I consider this series to be more traditional than cozy. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys British mysteries, traditional mysteries, or stories set in the 1950s.
August 29, 2021
Written in the late 1950s, there's a reek of sexism throughout - "picked up another bint last night", "her breasts were like two melons" and other predictable and poor-quality similes. That said, this, like all the Gently series, is a good yarn, skilfully told. Hunter is particularly gifted at describing place and weather, creating a vivid atmosphere. There's one nailbiting scene towards the finale, and a cracking description of a storm at sea, so evocative you can feel the boat - and passengers - heaving. The books are set in East Anglia, and the author makes full use of his local knowledge to transport the reader there. Why the TV series had to shift the action to the north-east is a mystery in itself, and it doesn't work for me. Martin Shaw, however, IS George Gently.
July 10, 2017
Another easy holiday read but no less enjoyable for that.
There are enough twists and turns in the story to keep your attention but none of those annoying plotlines that pop out of nowhere to solve the puzzle.
I like Gently's easy going but highly intuitive detecting style but also that he doent take himself too seriously.
There are enough twists and turns in the story to keep your attention but none of those annoying plotlines that pop out of nowhere to solve the puzzle.
I like Gently's easy going but highly intuitive detecting style but also that he doent take himself too seriously.
August 2, 2024
Atmospheric prose, unaccountable as a murder investigation. Gently dons an Hawaiian shirt and tries to solve the case through mystic osmosis. The only progress comes when people approach him of their own accord to volunteer information. Even then he gets it wrong.
May 16, 2021
A nice easy read with one of the most dramatic ending to any of the Gently Books I have read.
September 5, 2022
An excellent snapshot of life and holidays in the late 1950's
October 21, 2023
Fast and fun read. Great descriptions.
June 16, 2022
I really struggled reading this George Gently series. It did get better but whereas I have thoroughly enjoyed the series think it’s time to give it a rest.
February 23, 2013
This is the sixth in a very long series of murder mysteries featuring the middle aged Inspector George Gently, all written in the fifties and sixties. This one is back by the seaside, in a small and not very interesting village baking in a heatwave (cue lots of comments along the lines of 'what a scorcher' and frying eggs on the pavement). A beautiful young woman visitor is found murdered on the beach beside the fishing boats. The locals can make nothing of it, and Gently is summoned from Scotland Yard to solve the case.
Books of this type depend on one of three factors to give them legs. Either the mystery itself is ingenious, or the setting is evocative, or the detective is interesting enough to carry the story. The mystery here is neither clever nor (frankly) very interesting. The best murder mysteries give the reader enough information to work out the solution for themselves, but here there are three obvious suspects with motives yet the identity of the perpetrator and the actual motive are such that they can't really be deduced. There were one or two aspects that might be guessed at, but that's it.
Nor is the setting interesting. The author has already dealt with a seaside holiday setting in an earlier book ('Gently By The Shore') and this adds nothing new. The author describes the heatwave and the inevitable thunderstorm which follows in unconvincing purple prose. And the detective has become almost invisible, doing very little here except stand around while clues and information materialise in front of him. He does very little actual investigation, interviewing the obvious suspects while relying on 'intuition' to divine the truth of the matter. But at least he has stopped chewing peppermint creams, his only quirk now being to play with a pipe from time to time.
This series has never been very compelling. The plots are weak, the characterisation unconvincing and the writing might best be described as workmanlike. For me the charm has always been in the period details of post-war British life - the food, the clothing, the social distinctions and attitudes and so on. Sadly there is very little here of interest - some snippets of clothing, a reference to florins and a small coastal village which still has an active fishing trade. The only meal mentioned is salad and trifle, although a great deal of ice cream is consumed. Without the historical veneer, the story is exposed as a flimsy and insubstantial affair, with Gently inexplicably fascinated by one character while ignoring other possible leads, doing very little detective work until the solution is simply presented to him. I assume this is meant to be his unique characteristic as a detective, to simply stand and watch while the mystery unfolds itself before his eyes, but it really isn't a convincing technique. Two stars.
Books of this type depend on one of three factors to give them legs. Either the mystery itself is ingenious, or the setting is evocative, or the detective is interesting enough to carry the story. The mystery here is neither clever nor (frankly) very interesting. The best murder mysteries give the reader enough information to work out the solution for themselves, but here there are three obvious suspects with motives yet the identity of the perpetrator and the actual motive are such that they can't really be deduced. There were one or two aspects that might be guessed at, but that's it.
Nor is the setting interesting. The author has already dealt with a seaside holiday setting in an earlier book ('Gently By The Shore') and this adds nothing new. The author describes the heatwave and the inevitable thunderstorm which follows in unconvincing purple prose. And the detective has become almost invisible, doing very little here except stand around while clues and information materialise in front of him. He does very little actual investigation, interviewing the obvious suspects while relying on 'intuition' to divine the truth of the matter. But at least he has stopped chewing peppermint creams, his only quirk now being to play with a pipe from time to time.
This series has never been very compelling. The plots are weak, the characterisation unconvincing and the writing might best be described as workmanlike. For me the charm has always been in the period details of post-war British life - the food, the clothing, the social distinctions and attitudes and so on. Sadly there is very little here of interest - some snippets of clothing, a reference to florins and a small coastal village which still has an active fishing trade. The only meal mentioned is salad and trifle, although a great deal of ice cream is consumed. Without the historical veneer, the story is exposed as a flimsy and insubstantial affair, with Gently inexplicably fascinated by one character while ignoring other possible leads, doing very little detective work until the solution is simply presented to him. I assume this is meant to be his unique characteristic as a detective, to simply stand and watch while the mystery unfolds itself before his eyes, but it really isn't a convincing technique. Two stars.
April 11, 2020
A strong showing from Alan Hunter in this 6th Inspector George Gently novel that finds Gently investigating the mysterious death of a beautiful young woman on a holiday beach in the height of the Anglian summer.
The stifling summer weather and the holiday seashore are equal characters in this story that additionally features a trove of elusive and enigmatic townsfolk. The crime - actually, crimes - and the procedures to solve it are engaging. Hunter injects a fair amount of suspense and excitement in the last third of the book, as well. There's a bit of a dragging point a little more than halfway through where we don't get the benefit of the author's witty dialogue for several pages, but the payoff later in the book is worth the relative rough patch. The last fifty pages or so provide the best run-up of adventure this series has seen so far.
A little more complicated than previous Gently books but it's nice to see Hunter tightening the screws to his craft.
The stifling summer weather and the holiday seashore are equal characters in this story that additionally features a trove of elusive and enigmatic townsfolk. The crime - actually, crimes - and the procedures to solve it are engaging. Hunter injects a fair amount of suspense and excitement in the last third of the book, as well. There's a bit of a dragging point a little more than halfway through where we don't get the benefit of the author's witty dialogue for several pages, but the payoff later in the book is worth the relative rough patch. The last fifty pages or so provide the best run-up of adventure this series has seen so far.
A little more complicated than previous Gently books but it's nice to see Hunter tightening the screws to his craft.
September 25, 2014
Dear oh dear. Although enjoyable, I still feel somewhat let down in the continued Gently series. This one I didn't find exciting until the last few chapters, which is a disappointment. I have to question if Alan Hunter was simply writing novels for the fun of it rather than to provide a thrilling story! Gently In The Sun is a classic detective got there too late. I don't have much to add in terms of a review as I feel this reflects better what I'm trying to say. Will I continue? Most likely. But that's probably more for the nostalgia of George Gently..
December 3, 2012
A beautiful girl is found dead in a small fishing village and so begins another case for Inspector Gently.
The story was engaging and well written. But the conclusion, the linking of two murders decades apart, felt false in that the first murder made sense, but not the second.
The story was engaging and well written. But the conclusion, the linking of two murders decades apart, felt false in that the first murder made sense, but not the second.
November 25, 2013
I found the plot quite implausible and rather ridiculous. This close knit secretive brotherhood of fishermen stuff just doesn't ring true at all.
The story centred more on Gently's feelings towards the characters than the detection of the crime, I felt.
Not one of Hunter's better efforts.
The story centred more on Gently's feelings towards the characters than the detection of the crime, I felt.
Not one of Hunter's better efforts.
June 7, 2015
I love the George Gently mysteries and television series. In this one, a heat wave figures prominently in a murder at a seaside town. Britain in the late 50s and early 60s provides the background for Gently' s investigations.
February 7, 2013
Gently is called to a mediocre seaside town to investigate the death of an extremely attractive young woman visitor.
August 7, 2012
Ultimately I was turned off by the detective's admiration for a man who strangled two women.
November 5, 2012
another good solid 50/60 era crime novel
April 10, 2013
Old fashioned, gentle, who done it. Having read a number of the original novels, I prefer the tv show.
April 21, 2015
The Gently series is great reading. I did get lost on who was speaking a lot of times though. Dawes and Gently's non-verbal communication was interesting. Multi-faceted characters.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews