Was He a Perfect Gentleman? by Pat Backley

When Betty finds the dead body of Mr Jones, the local bank manager, on a snowy night in a small seaside town in Sussex, England, she realises she is never going to find out if he was a ‘perfect gentleman’ like her mum always said he was. It is ruled as a case of misadventure, but soon it is revealed that there is a long list of local people who he thought he was definitely not a ‘perfect gentleman’, and there are many suspects who held grudges and who might have been pleased to see him dead.

Tongues begin to wag about his numerous affairs, his arrogance behind his good looks, that he was rotten to the core and took pleasure in humiliating others. In each chapter, we meet another local person who has been wronged by Herbert Jones in some way. It becomes a classic whodunnit as so many people had motives for wanting him dead. But which of the many people did the deed? Or was it an accident after all? Without doing spoilers, there is a nice twist at the end.

There is a lovely sense of community in this book, and the large number of local characters who make an appearance is very nicely done. The perfect cosy crime novel to enjoy on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Reviewer: Karen McMillan

www.patbackley.com