Nine Ten Begin Again (Grasshopper Lawns #5)

Back to where it all started

Unsurprisingly, there are murky goings-on at the Grasshopper Lawns retirement village, but for once they’re not getting the attention they deserve. In this fifth book in the series, Hamish, the popular bursar, is on a year’s sabbatical and has been replaced by a political wannabe who alienates everyone. She’s not the only new appointment: there’s a very suspect new maintenance manager who doesn’t delight the female residents as much as he thinks he does.

There’s progress on Edge’s potential TV series Pick Up Sticks . Donald sets up a visit to his slightly dubious social club (which, it turns out, sails nearer than he had ever intended to the extremely dodgy world of leather fetishism and BDSM), and Vivian upsets the apple-cart by nearly dying of pneumonia. One way and another, the four friends are definitely distracted, and even wondering whether they are so used to intrigue that they are making mountains out of molehills.

Regular readers will notice this book is called a Grasshopper Lawns affair, instead of the usual Grasshopper Lawns whodunit. It is a whodunit, and the clues are tucked in plain sight as much as they ever were. You can beat them to the solution if you don’t also get distracted—it’s all there, the usual challenge for the armchair detective. However, there is, this time, a completely unexpected affair. It is so distracting that I had to change the subtitle, because whodunit purists would not approve. Those purists will probably also want to skip Chapter Five. There are no clues in that chapter to progress the series, and it is as steamy as the book gets (not very steamy) and contains the only swearies. Overall the book stays true to its cozy whodunit (or cosy whodunnit) genre, which means the style is gently rambling, with no overt violence, obscenity or graphic sex. Like the others in the series, it is a novella and, despite the rambling tone, moves along fairly briskly. Red herrings happen. It is both the darkest, and the most light-hearted, book in the series so far. Begin Again, indeed.

Excerpt
‘I love your imagination,’ Edge said appreciatively. ‘You leap tall buildings in a single bound. But can we check any of it?’

‘I’m frighteningly good,’ William agreed modestly and patted her hand. ‘Vivian, my lovely, would you know for sure if you saw your slimy Si again, clean-shaven and in a suit, whether he was Thomas or not?’

‘Yes, of course. I haven’t seen Simon in months so it could just be an uncanny likeness. But I have a very clear mental picture of Thomas.’

‘Then you should call and make an appointment to see Slimy Si about your investments. I’ll go with you. That’ll sort that bit out straight away. Whether he’s left the bank, or turns out not to be the same man, whatever, we either confirm the theory or brush it away. Pity we can’t track down a way of seeing Jemima out with her bloke, as well. Then we get to look at all three men.’