Mystery Women Authors

Catherine Aird

Biography

Catherine Aird is the author of more than twenty crime novels and story collections, most of which feature Detective Chief Inspector C. D. Sloan. She holds an honorary M. A. from the University of Kent and was made an M.B.E. Her other works include Amendment of Life (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2003) and Little Knell (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2001). She lives in England.

Books

Inspector C D Sloan

Amendment of Life

Detective Chief Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Calleshire CID is used to the occasional oddity in his relatively quiet part of the English countryside. But lately things have taken a strange turn. First, in the center of a yew maze that is the showpiece of the Tudor-era house, Aumerle Court, a body is spotted by Miss Daphne Pedlinge, the elderly chatelaine of the Court. By the time the groundskeeper actually makes it to the center, he, too, spies the body, and it is indeed dead." Meanwhile, a few miles away, a slaughtered rabbit is left on the Bishop's doorstep in nearby Calleford, an omen as portentous as the body in the maze. Now Inspector Sloan, with the somewhat trying personage of Constable Crosby in tow, must uncover what precisely is going on as they launch an investigation with more twists and turns than the maze itself.

Published St Martins Minotaur 2003 Hardcover

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Little Knell

Colonel Caversham, once prominent in the British colonial service, has died and left his large collection of artifacts to the local Calleshire museum. Included in those artifacts is a three-thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy and case, now the responsibility of one Mr. Fixby-Smith, Curator of the Greatorex Museum. What should be a simple moving job, however, is complicated by the local coroner, Mr. Granville Locombe-Stableford, since no body - no matter how ancient - can be moved without his consent. Which is how Detective Chief Inspector C. D. Sloan is dragged away from his more pressing concern with the burgeoning local drug problem and sent to the museum to sort out egos and red tape." "When the lid of the mummy case is raised, however, what greets the coroner, curator, and inspector is not what they expect. Instead of the remains of the ancient Rodoheptah, they find the body of an unidentified young woman who has been dead only a matter of days.

Published Pan Paperbacks 2001

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Stiff News

Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Calleshire Constabulary and his sidekick Detective Constable Crosby (After Effects, 1996, etc.) investigate possible murder at a nursing home in the new, very British, mystery from Aird. Following the death of Gertrude Powell, one of the home's residents, Gertrude's son Lionel receives a letter on the day of her funeral insinuating that she may have been murdered. Further investigation reveals that all of Gertrude's correspondence is missing. Most of the residents of the nursing home have known each other since WWII as members or family of the Fearnshires Regiment. None, however, seems to be able to explain the apparent secret of Gertrude's second marriage, let alone the circumstances of the woman's death. This isn't Aird's strongest showing. Her prose is literate as always, but character development is weak. The action only slogs along, except toward the end, when one resident disappears from the home and the search is on as the two detectives bring past and present together in a surprising conclusion.

Published St Martins Press 1998 Hardcover

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After Effects

In this latest Detective Inspector Sloan procedural, Sloan investigates the deaths of an elderly woman who took part in a drug test and the unexpected suicide of a doctor connected with the test. Quality writing from a practiced hand.

Published St Martins Press 1996 Harcover

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Injury Time

These 16 clever short puzzlers by the accomplished British author will serve as an excellent introduction to new readers and be a sure delight to fans. Most center around the investigations and acute observations of Berebury Detective Inspector Sloan. Like Agatha Christie, Aird (A Going Concern) specializes in classic puzzles with ingenious, yet logical, surprise endings. In "Memory Corner," a professor says he killed a student who had developed a way to read another's memory, a discovery that would signal, he says, "the end of all investigative and judicial processes." Skeptical, Sloan determines another reason for the young man's death. A few stories star Foreign Officer Henry Tyler, who solves cases for beleaguered friends and family members. Featuring neither Sloan nor Tyler is the satisfying "Devilled Dip," about an unlucky thief's inadvertant good deed.

Published St Martins 1994 Hardcover

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A Going Concern

Inspector C.D. Sloan investigates the death of Octavia Garamond, who left behind some very unusual requests and whose past contains a long-kept, and potentially dangerous, secret, as well as the reason for her death.

Published Pan; 1993

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The Body Politic

Just as Calleshire is an imaginary county in England, here we see the first appearance of the fictional Middle Eastern Sheikhdom of Lasserta, and Anthony Heber-Hibbs, British Ambassador to Lasserta. The Anglo-Lassertan Mineral Company has an awkward problem: Alan Ottershaw, a British mining engineer, ran over a pedestrian in Lasserta who stepped out into oncoming traffic, and faces the death penalty under Lassertan law. The Lassertan government, for its part, is using the incident to put the screws on the company, while Ottershaw himself was bundled home to Calleshire. Sloane and Crosby are thrown into the political arena to solve this case. Hello Diplomatic Immunity!

Published Signet; 1990

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A Dead Liberty

Because a blow to the head has almost totally incapacitated detective inspector Trevor Porrit, detective inspector C. D. Sloan is obliged to take over a case involving the poisoning of a civil engineer. It looks to be fairly open and shut, until Sloan finds himself intrigued by the defendantshe won't say a word. Working under the dual purposes of finishing what Porrit started and doing the job the defendant's attorney would have done (had she consented to one), Sloan involves himself in a case that is not only outside of his general jurisdiction, but also nearly a year old. Aird ( Harm's Way, Last Respects is in fine form in her 13th novel, mixing the occasional red herring with the sporadic unexpected twist. Although one does tend to get lost in her countryside and its innumerable towns, her characters are charming, intriguing and just unique enough to be distinguishable without being bizarre.

Published Doubleday; 1986

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Harm's Way

When the Berebury Footpaths Society sends two members to scout its upcoming trek, more than the society is in for a nasty shock. A crow flying overhead drops a human finger, turning the walkers into police assistants as they comb the trail for a body. Aird peppers the story with an array of literary quotations. Sergeant Mason must report police progress to his overbearing superior entirely by phone. Montague delivers these reports with just the right amount of suppressed frustration while adding a poetic touch to the text when necessary. This unusual story should appeal to those who yearn for a less complicated world.

Published Bantam; 1984.

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Last Respects

Catherine Aird's CD Sloan series is a real treat. For those who like British Procedurals done in the classic style, you won't find any better than these. The plots are tight, the characters plausible, and the puzzle a real puzzle. In this book Sloan is investigating the death of a man who was found in water, but who didn't die in water. As he investigates, he comes across a motley array of suspects - an old boatman who seems to see everything, a museum curator, an owner of a sheep farm and an architect. The trick is to find out the motive, and then it would illuminate who the murderer was. But before he does that he uncovers two more deaths - one old and one new, and he has to rush to avoid another one. Murderers seem to find it easier with each subsequent death. You must take the time to read this series. They're as perfect a little puzzle as you'll get anywhere. .

Published Bantam; 1982

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Passing Strange

This is a perfect little British mystery. We have a village flower show, the British firm of Terlingham, Terlingham and Owlet and loads of tea and ploughman's lunches. In this sparkler the village nurse/midwife is found murdered behind her fortune teller's tent at the flower show. Who would want to kill harmless, well-liked Nurse Cooper? Sloan and Crosby are sent to the village to discover the murderer. It all seems to hinge around a case of verified identity for property that is to be probated. The hardest thing that he has to determine is motive, but never fear, he manages to figure that out along with the identity of the murderer.

Published Bantam 1980

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Some Die Elequont

This book starts with a three-line verse by Rudyard Kipling (Some Die Eloquent), and it is a very good way to describe the death that Sloan is faced with in this book. A lady with life-threatening diabetes is found dead in her home. That doesn't look so suspicious until it is discovered that this quiet chemistry teacher has 3/4 of a million pounds in her bank account. This puts Sloan and Crosby on the tail of a murderer. The book is quite fast-paced for a Catherine Aird, and there is a fair amount of tension throughout. This is certainly aided by the impending birth of Sloan's baby and the needs that his family situation put on him. But never fear, he's there for the arrest of the murderer, and he makes it in time for the birth of his son. A good entry in the Sloan series. .

Published Bantam; 1979

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Parting Breath

Detective Inspector Slon expec ted trouble when he was called in to the student sit-in at Calleshire University. The dons were nervous, the students excited - it seemed inevitable that there would be a clash of some kind... But murder? Another thoroughly enjoyable classic British mystery from Catherine Aird. In this, the eighth in her Inspector Sloan series, we have red herrings galore as well as the usual goodly quantity of clues. While it might seem a bit dated to some, involving sit-ins, etc., in fact it holds up quite well. Aird gives both sides (dons [professors, to you Yanks] & students) a sympathetic hearing - there is no condescending tone or false liberality - just people being people and interesting ones, at th at. I can recommend this completely and again wish that more of her books were in print. If you enjoy Ellis Peter's series of George Felse mysteries - you'll like these.

Published Corgi; 1977 1989 Reissue

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Slight Mourning

his isn't your typical twelve come to a dinner party murder mystery, but that is where it begins. Twelve came to dinner at the manor house and after that dinner, the lord of the manor, Bill Fent is killed in a car accident. That doesn't look like murder, but Sloane finds out from the irrepressible Mr. Dabbe that there were enough barbituates in Bill's body to kill two lords of the manor. So Sloane and the bumbling Crosby are on the hunt for a murderer. As with all of Ms. Aird's books, if you follow the clues you may be able to figure out who the murderer is, but that in no way takes away from the fun. There is enough "tongue-in-cheek" in each of her books to keep the reader chuckling all the way through. And oh what a gem Sloane's boss, Leeyes is! I really enjoy these English cozies. Each one is totally unique and enjoyable in it's own right.

Published Corgi 1975 1989 Reissue

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His Burial Too

Ms. Aird's version of a "locked-room" mystery is an intriguing one. Her dry wit and intelligent writing make it an excellent example of thie genre. Not only that, but the book in its entirety takes place during the space of one day. It can't get much tighter than that. It all begins when an arm is seen amongst several tons of broken plaster in a locked church bell tower. This sets Inspector Sloan on the track of a murderer. But its her characters that make the story so special - the enigmatic Sloane, the bumbling Sergeant Crosby and the colourful Superintendent Leeyes. Ms Aird is a master craftsman of the the cozy mystery formula.

Published Bantam; 1973 Reissue 1986

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The Late Phoenix

Decades ago, Germans bombed the village at Lamb Lane. But now redevelopment is under way. During the excavation, a workman finds the skeleton of a pregnant girl with a bullet lodged in her spine. The trail is definitely stone cold when C. D. Sloan takes on the case.

Published Corgi; 1970 Reissue 1988

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The Stately Home Murder

At a stately home, now open for public tours, a young boy lifts the visor on a suit of armor - and finds a face staring back at him! Inspector C. D. Sloan and his wisecracking sidekick, Constable Crosby, Catherine Aird's two popular sleuths, must figure out who stashed the body and why.

Published Bantam; 1969 Reissue 1983

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Henrietta Who?

s. Aird writes a detective story in the truly classic way. Her plots are tight and there are just enough red herrings to make it interesting. This book is no exception. Poor Henrietta Jenkins loses her mother in a hit-and-run accident and then discovers that she's not Henrietta Jenkins at all, and the woman that she knew as her mother could not possibly have been. So who is she and who were her parents? The hit-and-run turns out to be murder and DI Slonae is called in to investigate. He's got a real puzzler on his hands with this one because no one is who they seem. An excellent little who-dun-it that is truly fun to read.

Published Bantam; 1968 Reissue 1981

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The Religious Body

Sister Anne has been thrown down the cellar stairs, and Inspector Sloan wonders who in God's name would want to murder a cloistered nun? Sloan's task is complicated by the unusual witnesses - 50-plus discreet, identically dressed nuns, each of whom has an assumed name and a past secular life.

Published Bantam; 1966 Reissue 1981

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Anthologies

Chapter and Hearse and other Mysteries

Comprising 17 short stories this collection of crime writing features Catherine Aird's indefatigable Detective Inspector Sloan and his assistant Cosby, as well as the mysterious Malcolm Venables of the Secret Service.

Published St Martins 2003 Hardcover

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Catherine Aird Omnibus

The Catherine Air Collection

Contains three novels featuring the unmistakable talents of the phlegmatic Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan and his more enthusiastic, fast driving, nonsense-talking, bad-joking Sergeant Crosby. Contains "His Burial Too", "Last Respects" and "Harm's Way". .

Published Pan 1993

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The Second Catherine Aird Omnibus of Crime

Unknown what stories it contains.

Published Macmillan 1994

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The Third Catherine Aird Omnibus of Crime

Three mysteries in one volume, all featuring Inspector C.D. Sloan and Detective Constable Crosby: "A Late Phoenix" - after 30 years, the skeleton of girl is found; "Passing Strange" - the unmotivated murder of a fortune teller; and "A Dead Liberty" - political intrigue after a murder.

Published Pan 1997

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Last updated 14-Feb-2004