Review: This Private Plot by Alan Beechey

A Mysterious Review of This Private Plot by Alan Beechey. An Oliver Swithin Mystery.

Review summary: This is a delightfully entertaining, English village-style mystery, with an abundance of wry humor and clever wordplay sprinkled throughout. More literate-based than action-oriented, though there is plenty of that, especially towards the end, this very enjoyable story is highly recommended. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

This Private Plot
Alan Beechey
An Oliver Swithin Mystery
Poisoned Pen Press (May 2014)

Publisher synopsis: If a blackmail letter drives a man to suicide, is the sender guilty of murder? "Yes," says Oliver Swithin, author of bestselling Finsbury the Ferret children’s stories and amateur sleuth, who is on holiday in an ancient village.

A midnight streak with his naked girlfriend — Scotland Yard’s Effie Strongitham — abruptly ends in the discovery of a corpse. Retired radiobroadcaster Dennis Breedlove has hanged himself from the old gibbet. Evidence suggests blackmail may have driven this celebrity to suicide. Irresistibly intrigued, Oliver believes discovering the dead man’s secret will lead to the identity of the blackmailer. But in Britain today, when shame is a ticket to fame, why suicide? What if it wasn’t?

When the mystery abruptly turns inside out, black-clad strangers attack Oliver in the night. The Vicar behaves strangely. So do the village’s five unmarried Bennet sisters, a mysterious monk, the persistent, self-effacing Underwood Tooth, and Oliver’s Uncle Tim, Effie’s superior at the Yard and a part-time Shakespearean actor. Plus Oliver’s aunt and his mother. Who else might play a role in this private plot? Two William Shakespeares?