SIMON JAY – Death of Skin Diver. Collins, hardcover, 1964. Doubleday Crime Club, US, hardcover, 1964.

   The author’s first book and he only wrote one more. Set in New Zealand, it opens with the accidental drowning of a skin diver – or at least it appears to be accidental until absent-minded detective, Dr/ Peter Much, a practicing pathologist, notices one or two inconsistencies and follows them up.

   More violence and death follow, and Much is nearly killed himself. There is mysterious sea chase (and endpaper map to illustrate it), and the unusual crime of gin running (yes, that’s right, gin not gun) is at the bottom of it all.

   By no means a classic, but nonetheless well worth searching out for Dr. Much and his haphazard detection.

Bibliographic Update: Simon Jay’s second and only other mystery novel was Sleepers Can Kill (Collins, 1968). Unfortunately, there is no indication in Hubin that Dr. Much made a second appearance in it.