Some deaths before dying Book

I read this because of Jo Walton's acknowledgements in Farthing. Readers of modern British mystery writers like Ruth Rendell already know that the genre makes an excellent setting for finely drawn character studies and crystalline plotting. Dickinson makes Rendall look quite crude (even when compared her earlier work, in which her disapproval of the politically correct younger generation is less cartoony).

Some Deaths Before Dying fits together beautifully on at least four levels at once: The revelations at the heart of the mystery plot fall into place in a way that feels inevitable, but not forced, and there's a wagonload of skillfully underplayed thematic trickery going on -- at least three strands at once. The characterization is delicate, sure, and satisfyingly human without drifting into sentimentality -- which is impressive, as the plot and cast could easily veer into the maudlin.

It's just lovely.