Böcker i Hodgkiss Mysteries-serien

Edgar Hodgkiss is roped into opening and closing the curtains between the acts of an amateur dramatic production. But after reading the scriptHodgkiss soon decides that it has been written with murder in mind. And he is not wrong. At the climax of the unlikely plot the hero of the piece is stabbed to death while tied into a chair. The prop knife, made to retract on contact, and the real knife, that obviously did the job, both have disappeared. It is Hodgkiss'' daughter, Esme, who made her stage debut in the role of a scantily clad French maid, who makes the sharp observation that leads to Hodgkiss exposing the murderer. Behind the scenes it was the corrupt faction of the Kanundda Council that was the architect of the whole deadly performance.Readers of the mystery genre are familiar with the scenario where a person is kidnapped and held prisoner in a basement or cellar. The problem facingthe captive is how to make contact with those on the outside who can mount a rescue. In these two stories, Hodgkiss and the Miraculous Message and Hodgkiss and the erroneous eMail, we see two solutions to the problem and it is Hodgkiss'' glamourous friend, Pat Strong, who helps provide the logical answers to these two intriguing problems.

A promiscuous government minister puts at peril the prospects of his party at the polls when a young woman who works in his office dies in his bed. When he calls two bumbling assistants to remove the inconvenient corpse things go from bad to worse. Edgar Hodgkiss, who by chance is waiting at the police station to meet his son-in-law, Detective Inspector Donald Burke, overhears a conversation between a sergeant and a complaining citizen. Then he sees a distinctive sports car being brought in for forensic examination. From these two tenuous threads Hodgkiss untangles a seedy web of deceit and corruption going to the very highest level of government.Hodgkiss is something of a purist when it comes to cricket. Fieldsmen should not stand about with their hands in their pockets and they certainly should not all run into the wicket to congratulate the bowler every time a wicket falls. So when a fast bowler dies mysteriously Hodgkiss knows where to look for the killer. Pat Strong invites Hodgkiss to go with her to visit a friend in the country. She knows Hodgkiss is no lover of the rural life and is likely to refuse. So she dangles a bait. The town has been plagued with a rash of nasty poison pen letters and things are getting bad. Hodgkiss can''t resist the call. When they arrive Hodgkiss finds that his reputation as an investigator has preceded him. He is soon swept along in the bitter undercurrents that are dividing the little town. Even as they leave, with the problem solved apparently, Hodgkiss has a moment of doubt.

The self-styled, self-important civic leader could not afford to have any embarrassing stories surfacing or his hopes and ambitions for the future would be dashed. Now his problem is how to silence the woman councillor who has discovered his offer to pay the gambling debt of a council officer who has done him a big favour. He plans and executes an impossible murder carried out in a pitch dark council chamber in front of dozens of people. But Edgar Hodgkiss, sharp and observant as ever, was there on the night and missed nothing.Hodgkiss and his friend Pat Strong come to the aid of Pat''s friend Mina, who had undergone a traumatic experience as a child in a rather run-down house which had been flooded during a heavy rain 20 years ago. But the old floods and the uprooting of an old tree have current consequences and the old sins cast long shadows.Hodgkiss is peeved when Pat Strong takes a job cataloguing books at the Parliamentary Library. When Pat learns that those in charge of selling off unwanted stock are searching for a very valuable document hidden somewhere in the huge library the complications and the violence begin. 

The author of popular mystery stories has made his reputation by devising imaginative ways in which a killer can leave his victim in a room with all the doors and windows locked up tight. When the author is found dead ... murdered in his own locked studio ... Detective Inspector Donald Burke rules out murder until Hodgkiss views the scene. Hodgkiss soon provides a solution even more ingenious than any the author ever dreamed up. After playing a round of golf Hodgkiss and Donald Burke go to the change room where they arrive to hear the tail end of a conversation between two other players. But it is not just what they hear but the manner in which one of the other players was putting on his shoes that gives Hodgkiss the clue to solve a nasty murder that happens soon afterwards.When the man''s body was found there was no doubt that death was due to a fall. But where did he fall from? The office building where he worked or the block of flats where he was a regular participant in drug-fueled orgies. Hodgkiss leaves the matter in no doubt.