![\"Murder](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/61lS-h4ZTwL._SY346_.jpg?w=474&ssl=1\")
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Yet another in an apparently infinite<\/strong> supply of English police procedural mystery series. I tried Murder of a Silent Man<\/a><\/em> (I suppose I identified with the title) by Phillip Strang. It had certain virtues which I won\u2019t deny, but overall I wasn\u2019t much impressed.<\/p>\n Gilbert Lawrence is the murder victim in this story. He\u2019s an old, reclusive man who only went out once a week, to the liquor store. No one would have guessed he was one of the richest men in the country, unless they noticed the large house where he lived, holed up in a small locked area. But someone took the trouble to stab him to death in his front garden, and now DCI Isaac Cook and his team must unravel the mystery. It\u2019s compounded by the discovery of a human skeleton in an upstairs bed.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no lack of suspects. Lawrence had two estranged children, one a prosperous wife, the other a drug addict and con man. For years his affairs have been handled by his solicitor and his daughter, who have been profiting well from his business interests \u2013 perhaps too well.<\/p>\n The great virtue of this book was its realism. It followed police procedure in a believable way. No flashes of genius insight here, no car chases or terrorist situations. Just solid police work leading finally to a solid \u2013 and undramatic \u2013 conclusion. I don\u2019t mind that at all. Some people might want more bells and whistles, but I liked this approach.<\/p>\n What I didn\u2019t care for was the presentation of the story. The prose was sometimes weak. The characters weren\u2019t very vivid \u2013 the suspects were more interesting than the cops, but they weren\u2019t all that fascinating either. We weren\u2019t even given descriptions of most of the cops \u2013 except for DCI Cook, who is Jamaican by heritage. Apparently author Strang assumed the reader would have read the earlier books in the series and would remember earlier descriptions.<\/p>\n So all in all, I wasn\u2019t greatly impressed. I did appreciate the realism, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yet another in an apparently infinite supply of English police procedural mystery series. I tried Murder of a Silent Man (I suppose I identified with the title) by Phillip Strang. It had certain virtues which I won\u2019t deny, but overall I wasn\u2019t much impressed. Gilbert Lawrence is the murder victim in this story. He\u2019s an … Continue reading ‘Murder of a Silent Man,’ by Phillip Strang<\/span>