A Good Year For Murder
Albert J Tretheway Series
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Set in the Ontario city of Fort York in 1940, this novel introduces readers to Albert V. Tretheway (pronounced TreTHOOee), an oversized Inspector in the Fort York Police Department, along with his colleague, Jonathan (Jake) Small, his sister Adelaine (Addie), and a bizarre collection of characters who make up the Fort York City Council. In early 1940, Fort York is chiefly concerned with the war; that is, until a series of crimes turns their attention to dangers closer to home. A dead, unplucked chicken with an arrow through its heart is delivered to Junior Alderman Gertrude Valentine, which marks the beginning of a series of "pranks" on subsequent holidays, eventually leading to murder. The city waits breathlessly for each week to pass, wondering which holiday (and which Alderman) will be next. The story reaches its raucous climax on New Years Eve in Albert and Addie's boarding house, where Tretheway unravels the mystery in front of the entire cast of citizens.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A practical joker is victimizing the politicians of Fort York, a small city in Canada. On one holiday each month during 1940, a member of the city government receives a rude shock, starting on St. Valentine's Day when a chicken shot by an arrow is delivered to alderman Gertrude Valentini. By June, the pranks have escalated to murder with the strangling, on Father's Day, of Father Consentino, former priest and member of the Board of Control. Police Chief Horace Zulp assigns round-the-clock guards to the hapless politicians, but in July and August, on St. Swithin's Day and the Civic Holiday, respectively, two more meet their ends. After September's killing, Zulp thinks he has caught the murderer. But the suspect is in shock and cannot talk. Zulp is completely satisfied but traffic inspector Albert V. Tretheway is worried there's still more mayhem to come. And there is. Tretheway finds the real killer, appropriately enough, on New Year's Eve. While the mystery is perfectly adequate and Eddenden conveys a nice sense of a country on the eve of war, the satire is pretty heavy-handed and no public servants could be as stupid as the police chief and the mayor, and hold their jobs.
