Review: A classic British murder mystery filled with suspense! Highly recommended!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2014
"We suspect everybody, till they are proven innocent". So says Chief Inspector Patrick Campbell, one of the best in the field in England.  This is the underlying theme of the British crime fiction The Dart Murders.  The author James Kipling presents one murder after the other in serial style and with each murder, has Chief Inspector Campbell and his team relentlessly investigating several personalities until...bulls eye! The murderer is revealed.These are not your run-of-the-mill murders because of the unusual weapons used which add to the complexity of the case. So too are the number of characters involved who keep the reader on his/her toes with their various idiosyncrasies.  Case in point is the overbearingly verbose Carla Carson with her steel-rimmed spectacles.  The reader has to have his/her head screwed on to keep up with all the character sketches, the police statements and who says what.The Dart Murders is also a British murder mystery in which Chief Inspector Campbell and his team has to face the classic response of citizens to any criminal activity - reluctance to divulge information out of fear for one's life.  In fact such a fear is realized by characters in the story when they contemplate giving the inspectors clues to the murders. "Most people are...scared that if they...give...valuable evidence, they may become the next victim."Kipling cleverly uses omniscient narrative style in telling the story to reveal the various points of view of the characters. This way, the reader gains understanding of the events, including background information, from several perspectives.  These insights are however controlled by the author to maintain suspense.The uncomplicated flow and language of the book frees the reader to focus on the complexity of the mystery at hand.  When Chief Inspector Campbell and his team sit down to review the case and summarize the role of each suspect, the reader, in true Kipling style, also sits at the table to solve the mystery and...When the reader recovers from the shock of finding out who the murderer is, he/she realizes another underlying theme in the story...that "no person can claim to fully know another person completely.  It's impossible".A  good blend of detective murder mystery and psychological serial killings.