Sloan and Crosby
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The Calleshire Chronicles (also known as the Sloan and Crosby canon) is a series of 20 crime novels by the English author Catherine Aird. The first The Religious Body (ISBN 0745157092) appeared in 1966 and the last A Hole in One (ISBN 0749083433) in 2005.
"The Sloan & Crosby series is not to be missed by lovers of a good mystery. The mysteries have a wonderful comic touch, intricate plotting and literate charm." [1]
Christopher Dennis Sloan, known to his colleagues as "Seedy", is a long suffering Detective Inspector. Happily married, he grows roses in his (limited) spare time. In each novel he is helped by the hapless Detective Constable Wiliam Crosby, a fast-driving but slow-thinking young man avoided by his colleagues. Only Sloan's wife Margaret has ever been known to say a good word about him. In each novel Sloan is put under pressure by his immediate superior, the choleric Superintendent Leeyes. The laboured conversations between the two men summarise the plot at regular intervals. The only other two characters who appear regularly are: Dr Dabbs the lagubrious pathologist; and traffic division head Inspector "Happy" Harte, so named because he claims he has never had anything to smile about.
The books, set in a county easily identifiable as Kent, often turn on ecclesiastical matters and show Aird's deep knowledge of canon law.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Moray Council Public Library Newsletter, Review dated 29.4.04
