At Night to Die

Back up to the standard of The Two Hundred Ghost I think for classic crime author Henrietta Hamilton in this novel, At Night To Die, the fourth (yes, I've missed one) of her Johnny and Sally Heldar mystery series. In this story, a phone call from a friend sees the detecting duo make their way to a remote Highlands manor house where the elderly Laird may, or may not, recently have been murdered. Of course if there hadn't been any crime committed then At Night To Die would be a much shorter book!

I particularly liked Hamilton's portraits of the Highlands around the village of Affray, and the way in which she contrasts that rural environment with Edinburgh's city streets. The characters are fun too. Sally, again, has a less active role than Johnny, but I didn't get the sense of her being sidelined in the same way as in The Man Who Wasn't There. Instead, while always behaving appropriately for a 1950s married woman, she often drives discussions and prompts Johnny to consider alternative angles. Interestingly, although the story is set fifteen years after the end of the Second World War, there are indications that several of the male characters are still very much influenced by their wartime roles and also that, looking further back in time, that Charles Stuart's defeat at Culloden is still keenly felt. Having read a number of twenty-first century Balkan and African novels set in the aftermath of wars, I recognised a similar trauma undercurrent.

The mystery itself was fun to unravel and, I thought, fairly easy because even I managed to guess most of it correctly before we readers were told. I hope Agora keeps uncovering and republishing Henrietta Hamilton's novels because I am happy to have the opportunity to enjoy the series.