Inspector Thanet Omnibus 2

I hadn't intended to return to the Inspector Thanet well so soon, but the book I wanted to borrow from the Athenaeum wasn't there, so I grabbed this instead. We are now well into the mid-80s, though the timeline seems to move more swiftly within the novels -- Thanet's daughter has aged ten years by the end of Dead On Arrival, despite only five years passing in publication time (Simpson could really churn them out! Kudos).

Again, though I do enjoy the mysteries themselves, the real appeal is in the social detail. Close Her Eyes (1984) features a fifteen year old victim, and it would be a brave author today who would describe an abused teenager as 'pure evil.' Last Seen Alive (1985) opens with a visit to the town by Princess Diana, at the peak of her popularity and before her marriage to Charles broke down. It also, rather yuckily, features incest, and the social panic de jour, children sniffing glue. Dead On Arrival (1986) (a title which, by the way, has nothing to do with the plot) breaks one of the Golden Age detective rules by centring on identical twins, though perhaps it doesn't strictly break the rule as we know about the existence of both twins from the beginning. Thanet's daughter enters a competition akin to Junior Masterchef, with the gorgeously eighties menu of Pork Chops With Mint and Lemon Flummery.

Looking forward to volume three! But perhaps not quite yet.