body substituted for mummy, tied to drug smuggling

I had read and enjoyed several of [a:Catherine Aird|92062|Catherine Aird|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207671778p2/92062.jpg]'s books in the 70s and 80s, and for some reason thought she had stopped writing. Acquiring the book [b:A Reader's Guide to the Classic British Mystery|3829529|A Reader's Guide to The Classic British Mystery|Susan Prince Oleskiw|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266965174s/3829529.jpg|3874170] by [a:Susan Oleksiw|372382|Susan Oleksiw|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] reminded me of Aird and, looking for one I hadn't read, I discovered this relatively recent (2000) book in her series about Inspector C. D. Sloan of the Calleshire Constabulary. (Calleshire appears to be somewhere on the south coast of England.)

I recall Aird's earlier books as having a rather quirky sensibility for an English police procedural, and that trait is still present here. Touches of humor appear throughout and the plot is sufficiently convoluted for anyone. But for some reason, which I can't quite put my finger on, I didn't think this book was as good as the earlier ones. It was short, though; I finished it in one evening even though several hours of that evening were spent in the car and attending a play. If you are interested in trying Catherine Aird, I'd recommend going to one of her early books like [b:The Religious Body.] In [b:Little Knell|1490181|Little Knell|Catherine Aird|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311988055s/1490181.jpg|1481430] (and I never did figure out what the relevance of the title to the book might be), Aird seemed to be phoning it in. ( )