Corridors of Death by Ruth Dudley Edwards

Corridors of Death
by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Pages: 249
Date: March 25 2011 (Orig. 1981)
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Series: Robert Amiss (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4 out of 5
Read: July 14 to 15 2016

Just a quick note: This is a quite interesting humorous mystery from the early 1980s. I was drawn to it as British politics is bouncing around a lot at the moment, so - while this specific book isn't timely, it is interesting to read at the moment.

There are two main characters - a police guy, Superintendent Jim Milton, and a government guy, Robert Amiss. Both work together to solve the mystery of the dead government minister (Robert's boss Sir Nicholas Clark, a real bastard of a guy - personality wise).

There have probably been other books I've read that involved informants, and books involving non-police helping the police solve crimes, but this might be the first with this specific fact pattern: Amiss helping Milton weave and wiggle through the shifting and complicated world of the government, specifically both how people like talking around an answer instead of giving one, and in job titles (everyone kind of has goofy job titles - everyone is some form of minister or secretary or both; the people who do the typing and the like are Personal Secretaries (which is different from Private Secretaries, which is Robert Amiss' title)).

Competently written. Both humorous and serious. Quite good book. It is a sign of something or other, not sure what exactly, that I immediately purchased the next book in the series after finishing this one (course, the prices on the first two books were quite nice, something like $1.99 for the first and $0.99 for the second).

Oh, one last thought before I go - no, Amiss and Milton are not gay for each other. That's not why gay shelf has been added, or the LGBT one - no, one of the side characters is gay and has a boyfriend. Amiss himself is single, and somewhat determined to stay that way (as his life doesn't lend itself to women accepting his odd hours); while Milton is married to a rather nice woman who actually helps him on occasion.

July 18 2016