A Rather Cryptic Crime - Wilcox J

The first book in J Wilcox's 'Leslie and Bennett' series.

The scandalous affair between Clarissa Harrington-Thomas and a young artist has set tongues wagging in the village. When Clarissa's ailing husband, George, dies, two of his friends are suspicious. Leslie and Bennett raise the alarm and the police make an arrest - but it's the wrong person, according to Leslie. Agonising over this, and an unfinished conversation that he'd had with George, Leslie decides that he must investigate. Pottering about the village shop, pub and tearoom, the locals confide in him, and under the influence of Leslie's sumptuous cooking, suspects and witnesses give up their secrets. Blackmail and lies, a prowler in the night and an imposter; these, and more, emerge, but Leslie struggles to make sense of it all. Which are the clues and which are red-herrings? And none of it seems to explain why poor George, who was not long for this world, had been murdered. While Leslie worries away at the problem, Bennett, maddeningly phlegmatic, carries on with his usual, or rather unusual, work as a crossword puzzle setter. Will he apply his cryptic mind to the problem and come up with a solution?