Only A Game

February 15, 2010
The irreverent, irrepressible DCI Percy Peach returns to do battle not only with the criminals of Brunton, Lancashire, but also with his pompous boss, Chief Superintendent Thomas Bulstrode Tucker, whose balloon of pretentiousness Peach just loves to burst. Peachs latest case concerns the murder of Jim Capstick, owner of the Brunton Rovers soccer team. Capstick is found strangled shortly after making the shocking announcement that hes selling the team. As Peach sees it, nearly everyone in the room at the time of the announcement had a motive for killing Capstick, from his much-younger wife, whose love affair was about to be exposed, to the team coach, who could lose his job under new ownership, to the club secretary, whose secret vice would gain him no favor with the sheik rumored to be buying the team. While Peach is the consummate cop, he has trouble focusing on the case at hand, since hes due in a few short weeks to tie the knot with his longtime lover, DS Lucy Blake. Another engaging, cleverly plotted, darkly witty British police procedural from a well-liked and always entertaining author.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)