‘Absolute Poison’ by Geraldine Evans

Published by Severn House,
18 December 2002.
ISBN: 978-0-7278-7379-8 (HB)

DI Joseph Rafferty has problems. He has just attended the scene of the second corpse in a week and is morbidly confident that the third will be reported before the week is out.  Compounding his problems, his Ma, who is always on the look out for a ‘bargain’ and is not choosey of the bargain’s origins, has sold a wedding suit to Rafferty’s Welsh Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn, who is more upright and law abiding than the pope.

When a hated company manager is found dead at his desk, Rafferty takes no pleasure in that his premonition has been vindicated. There are more suspects  than one can shake a stick at. Certainly, all the office personnel from poor Harris on his third warning to Linda Luscombe, single mother. Then there are the cleaners, and the security staff, not to mention the day’s visitors, all therefore needing all Rafferty’s attention. But the whole of his investigation is overshadowed by the thoughts of Llewellyn’s impending wedding day, and the obvious expensive suit, which seems to have acquired a Mark’s & Spencer label, sure to be a talking point, groans Rafferty.

This was a real find. Geraldine Evans knows how to make a character leap off the page at you. PC Timothy Smales does not actually appear for a couple of chapters, but I knew him well before he even made an appearance, and Sgt Llewellyn reminded me of ‘Padget’ in Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit.

Although only a brief appearance is made by the company’s owner, Alistair Plumley, we know him. As explained by Rafferty, Alistair Plumley doesn’t like people dying on the premises. Apart from being bad for the company image it shows a sad lack of team spirit. Plumley likes his employees to die in their own time, and on their own premises.

Between numerous suspects and the ‘iffy’ suit, Raferty has his work cut out, but surprises abound. The blurb on this book says, bizarre, quirky  and ingenious. I can’t disagree with that. I loved it.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Geraldine Evans (Died 2020) is a British writer of police procedurals that contain a lot of humour and family drama.  Her18-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn series features DI Joe Rafferty, a London-Irish, working-class, lapsed Catholic, who comes from a family who think - if he must be a policeman - he might at least have the decency to be a bent one. Her 2-strong Casey & Catt series features DCI 'Will' Casey, a serious-minded, responsible policeman, for whom 'the Sixties never died', irresponsible, drug-taking, hippie parents, pose particular problems of the embarrassing kind.

http://geraldineevansbooks.com/