Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm: A British Library Crime Classic by Gil North

Sergeant Cluff is awakened from sleep by his animals.  First the cat and then the dog make enough noise to wake him up.  The ringing telephone didn't bother him at all.  He gets up to answer it and finds there's a body that was found and he's needed...

Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this crime classic (thank you).  A new edition will be coming out September 6th.

Cluff is an interesting person.  He's a big man, who is very deliberate.  He takes his time coming to conclusions.  He also knows all the village people.  He grew up there, his brother has a farm in the nearby country, and nobody has secrets from him.  Even then, he often has to haunt his prey to make them do something that proves their guilt.

He knows the dead woman well.  She was older and had just married for the first time.  He was an outsider.  She has committed suicide, but he knows it's because of what the man did.  He might not have hit her but verbal abuse can hurt just as much.  He begins looking for her long lost husband.

The author pulls no punches.  He gives you the mean facts and shows you the dirty underside of life.  His stories are full of realism and it gives you a chill.

The man she married was only after her money.  When she ran out of that, he left her.  He's already found a new woman.  Cluff figures that out and goes about looking for who might have taken him in.  The woman is worse than any of the men.  She'd kill them all to get away.

The conman ends up dead and Cluff almost ends up that way, too.  The old workman on the property is dead.  The woman escapes but she kidnaps Cluff's niece.  Can he save her?  When you're working with someone has a broken mind, that's a hard question to answer.