Ernst Witt Book

This is the 11th adventure of Lennox Kemp, an attorney in London, England. Earlier in his career, and the series, Lennox ran into some personal issues, was disbarred and took up a career as private enquiry agent, i.e. a private detective, to make ends meet. Happily now he's been reinstated and working at a private law firm, but has not put his sleuthing behind him. This is not a courtroom thriller series, but rather British "cozy" murder mysteries.

Postscript To Murder opens with Lennox newly married and happily employed, but unfortunately at the receiving end of a handful of anonymous and very threatening letters. When a co-worker is murdered, possibly due to these threats, Lennox slips into a funk and his new wife takes up the task of getting to the bottom of the mysterious letters and the murder. Unfortunately this not so subtle change of detectives doesn't work.

As in the other books there is a very well developed set of secondary characters/suspects and an interesting puzzle, but Lennox, seemingly paralyzed with guilt after the murder of his co-worker, takes a powder. So enter stage left, the new Mrs. Kemp - Mary - as amateur PI. Unfortunately Mary just doesn't come across as either a believable or an engaging protagonist. She vacillates between a 20th century "take charge" character and a poor facsimile of a 19th century heroine, batting her eyelashes while gobbling up and processing town gossip to solve the crime(s). The reader spends an inordinate amount of time inside Mary's head as she - i.e. the author - attempts to "explain" her new role and her contradictory behavior - all of which rings hollow, becomes tiresome, and bogs down the story.

The Lennox Kemp series is a very good and entertaining one with all the attributes of a traditional cozy - little violence, sex or "foul" language - although there is some of the latter in this book - with a set of interesting civilized characters and a central mystery to solve. But unfortunately Postscript To Murder comes up short in comparison to its predecessors, so don't start here if you're interested - pick up one of the earlier books.