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Henrietta Who? (Inspector Sloan #2)

Catherine Aird

Start date: April 15, 2022

Finish date: May 7, 2022

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Second in this popular series.
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What Members Thought

Aug 14, 2017 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

March 2022 reread: Couldn’t remember whodunnit, so I listened to the audiobook, enjoyably narrated by Robin Bailey. He really brought Aird’s understated humor to life, and I was glad to remind myself of the intriguing plot of this second book in what is becoming a favorite traditional British police procedural series. Historical series now, I guess, as these first two books have taken place in the 1960s, but feel like very traditional, Golden Age mysteries. Reread for the upcoming Reading the De ...more

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Mar 25, 2022 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the second in the Inspector Sloan series, first published in 1968. It begins with the discovery of a body in the village of Larking. Mrs Grace Jenkins, found in the road by the postman and seemingly the victim of a hit and run accident on a dangerous bend in the road. Her daughter, Henrietta is asked to return from college to identify the body. However, a post mortem reveals that Mrs Jenkins has never had a child and so Henrietta is not her daughter...

Henrietta's life, and identity, is t ...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-mystery, british-mystery, mcpl-book, silver-age-mystery, mystery, virtual-mount-tbr-2021

This is the second in the Inspector C. D. Sloan police procedural series and, as with the first--The Religious Body, Sloan finds himself looking to the past to find answers to some very present murders. He and DC Crosby are called to investigate a traffic fatality. What looked at first to be a simple hit-and-run, soon gives evidence of having been a carefully planned murder. But who would want to kill Grace Jenkins, a widow who has always kept herself to herself and had no real friends--let alon This is the second in the Inspector C. D. Sloan police procedural series and, as with the first--The Religious Body, Sloan finds himself looking to the past to find answers to some very present murders. He and DC Crosby are called to investigate a traffic fatality. What looked at first to be a simple hit-and-run, soon gives evidence of having been a carefully planned murder. But who would want to kill Grace Jenkins, a widow who has always kept herself to herself and had no real friends--let alone enemies. But there are even greater questions ahead. When Grace's daughter Henrietta comes home from university to identify the body, she finds that someone has broken into her mother's desk...but apparently they had a key to the cottage because there's no sign of forced entry.

The next shock in store is when the pathologist discovers that the woman Henrietta has identified as her mother had never borne a child and most likely was never married at all. If Henriett isn't Grace Jenkins's daughter, then who is she? Further investigation by Sloan reveals oddities about the man whose picture has held pride of place in the cottage. A picture of a man whom Grace claimed as her husband--killed in the war and decorated for service. But the medals on the man in the picture and the medals kept in a drawer don't match. Henrietta begins to wonder if anything she she's believed about herself is really true.

The hunt for a murderer by motor vehicle soon turns into a hunt for identity as well--Grace's, Henrietta's, and the man in the photo. If they can just find some proof indicating who any one of these really is, then they'll have something to work with and perhaps be able to find the motive. The man in the photo is eventually traced, but he's killed before Sloan can question him. It isn't until Sloan and Crosby tap into the correct memories from twenty years ago that they find the clue to the modern mysteries.

Sloan is a very low-key detective--no great flights of inspiration, no colorful habits or peculiarities. He just does the day-to-day work of a Detective Inspector (and delegates the more tedious tasks to Crosby--such as searching through the records of past cases and hunting up all the Holly Tree Farms in the area). He has a wry, not quite sarcastic wit that shows itself particularly in interactions with Crosby and his superior, Superintendent Leeyes, but is very humane when dealing with Henrietta, showing great concern for the girl's plight.

The mystery itself is a very interesting one with both victim and murderer as unknown quantities--and even the relations of the victim having their identities questioned. It's rare to not only have a "whodunnit" but a "who had it done to them" as well. It seems for a while that the identity question has taken over the book, but the reader should never lose sight of the fact that once the identities are sorted, the motive for the murder and the identity of the murderer will become clear. Overall, a highly enjoyable mystery.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks. ...more

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Mar 24, 2022 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, 2022, england, hot-read

Second in Catherine Aird's series involving Inspector Sloan. I enjoyed it. Not sure I've ever read a mystery quite like it.

A young lady's mother is involved in a hit and run as the victim. The daughter is called out of college to identify her. It turns out the woman is not her mother. Is her father her father? This youngster's entire identification is thrown into question. There is a burglary and more deaths. The question seems to hinge on her upcoming 21st birthday.

This kept me up late two ni ...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, crime-fiction-uk

Much better than her 1st installment in the series. This one has an interesting plot: a woman is found dead, apparently run over by a car. She left behind a daughter in college, but the daughter turns out not to be who everyone thinks she is. The question is, "who is she?" Sloan must unravel this puzzle in order to solve this most vicious crime.

I liked it; it held my attention and offered a variety of suspects. I didn't figure out the killer which is always a plus. Recommended for those who lik ...more

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Apr 19, 2022 Frances rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series

3.5 stars for this one, an engaging mystery centred around a hit-an-run accident, which opens up a mystery about the identity of Henrietta, the supposed daughter of the victim. Sloan and Crosby must race to discover who she is, and who would have wanted to kill her mother.

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Aug 01, 2023 Amy rated it liked it

Shelves: read-as-an-audiobook, brit-trip, 2023, 2023-crime-spree

Dated and bordering on silly at times. (Henrietta needed a strong shake to get her to stop being so dramatic.) Still a solid, well plotted, golden age feeling mystery.

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