The Devil In Disguise by Martin Edwards

Harry Devlin, Liverpool lawyer and some-time sleuth, has a new client, the Kavaunagh Trust. They want to contest the will of the trust’s founder, who has left everything to Vera Blackhust, an apparent gold-digger. Harry’s suspicions are aroused when Luke, the Chairman of the Trust starts acting oddly – something seems to be troubling him, but was it enough to make him throw himself out of a third floor hotel window?

For once, Harry isn’t sticking his nose in, until one of the other trustees shares his suspicions with him. As he delves deeper into the background of the trustees and their nearest and dearest, he becomes convinced that Luke was murdered. But what secrets was the killer protecting? And who else might be standing in their way?

Being nice to someone never hurts. When I was in the supermarket today, I inadvertently stood slightly in front of someone who was looking at the DVD shelf. Rather than a polite “Excuse me”, I received a heavily sarcastic “Thank you”. The result? General grumpiness all round. Whereas when Martin Edwards left a lovely comment on my recent post on underappreciated books (technically underappreciated reviews), the next Harry Devlin book leapt up to the top of my TBR pile. I’ve been saving this one for a while – I’ve only two (well, one now) Devlin books to read, along with one of the Scarlett and Kind books – but the problem with doing that is that you end up never getting round to reading them.

I’ve enjoyed this series from Martin, a clear example of weaving a classic-style mystery in a modern novel. A likeable lead – flawed, but not horribly so – with a well-constructed set of suspects, just as you would expect from this sort of mystery, but as with the previous books, the author has made sure to put a new spin on events. It’s a bold move that works extremely well in this case. As the events come to a climax, there’s a dawning horror as to the meaning of the opening sequence that seems divorced from the story for a long while.

It’s not perfect – the Scissorman plot seems to belong to a different narrative (despite dominating the cover), although it does show how wrong Harry can be at times – but it’s another excellent entry in this strong series. Highly Recommended.

Other Books In This Series

• All The Lonely People
• Suspicious Minds
• I Remember You
• Yesterday’s Papers
• Eve Of Destruction
• The Devil In Disguise – that’s this one!
• First Cut Is The Deepest – not reviewed yet
• Waterloo Sunset