March 15, 2018
In his seventh outing (following Indelible, 2014), Bath, England, PI and painter Chris Honeysett uncovers more than he bargained for when his drawing model disappears. He has a paying gig trying to prove that Henry Blinkhorn didn't really drown six years ago, and the insurance company should get its $1.5 million back. But that case takes a backseat to cruising down the Kennet & Avon Canal on a narrow boat in search of his model, Verity Lake. There's nothing prurient in middle-age Honeysett's interest in the young model; his romantic life is complicated enough with a non-monogamous girlfriend off painting a mural for a millionaire. As Honeysett continues his journey down the canal, readers will find themselves drawn to this offbeat yet determined sleuth whose cavalier attitude toward boat stewardship gets him in almost as much trouble as the reptile and knife attacks he encounters along the way. Honeysett's smart mouth and easy manner are reminiscent of Tim Cockey's Hitchcock Sewell and David Freed's Cordell Logan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
February 19, 2018
At the outset of British author Helton’s droll seventh Chris Honeysett mystery (after 2014’s Indelible), artist-cum-detective Chris and an insurance company officer working on a fraud case meet in Bath’s Pump Room. Henry Blinkhorn supposedly drowned on a fishing trip six years earlier and his widow collected a payment of more than £1 million. A recent photo published in a fishing magazine, however, shows that Blinkhorn is still alive. Chris stands to earn a very tidy fee if he locates the man. Later, Chris goes to teach a life drawing class and discovers that his nude model, Verity Lake, has vanished. When he learns that Verity may have taken off on a local canal, he borrows a boat to search for her. Meanwhile, Chris’s lady friend, Annis Jordan, is away fulfilling a commission to paint a gigantic mural inside the pool house of an eminent record producer. All the disparate plot lines somehow converge in the madcap finale. Those who don’t mind colossal coincidences, vertiginous leaps of logic, and improbable situations will enjoy this romp.
February 1, 2018
Painter-turned-detective Chris Honeysett (Worthless Remains, 2017, etc.) hunts for his missing model.It's not clear whether Honeysett sets up Aqua Investigations to supplement his small earnings as a painter or whether he teaches life classes to pad out his meager income as sleuth. In either case, he shows a polymath's ability to turn on a dime. This time, he's in the middle of a job for Giles Haarbottle of Griffins, who wants him to find former client Henry Blinkhorn. Blinkhorn's alleged widow received death benefits from the insurer six years ago. But a picture turned up recently in The Angler of a resurrected Henry fishing for trout at Rainbow Lodge Fisheries. Honeysett sets up surveillance near Janette Blinkhorn's posh home but finds it so tedious that as soon as his partner, fellow painter Annis Jordan, takes off to paint a mural on a rich guy's swimming pool, he gives up his surveillance to bake cakes for the students in his painting classes. His pastry skills get shoved to the side when his life model, Verity Lake, disappears, and he chucks both the Haarbottle job and his students to chase after her. At a nearby Travelers' camp he hears that Verity may be out on the canal that runs through Bath. After bicycling along the towpath leaves him soaked by an unexpected storm, he borrows a narrowboat from his mechanic, Jake, and learns to pilot it through the intricate system of locks that crisscross the English countryside, meeting a host of colorful fellow narrowboaters on his way.Helton puts his multitalented hero through his paces with typical disdain for either the problem that got him started or the goal he hopes to reach. For readers who think the pleasure's in the journey.
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