CATHERINE AIRD – Passing Strange. Sloan & Crosby #9 [of 28]. Collins, UK, hardcover, 1980. Doubleday/Crime Club, US, hardcover, 1981. Bantam, US, paperback, 1982.

   In the same category as Mary Fitt of a generation earlier, Catherine Aird is another writer whose works others have been praising highly to me. If this latest book of hers is typical, however, once again I am dense, and I fail to see what the shouting’s all about.

   The detective in most of her books is Inspector Sloan, of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Berebury Division of the Calleshire Force. Here he investigates the death of the village nurse, by strangulation, at the annual Almstone Flower and Horticultural Show, a gala event in this section of Britain. At stake is the proper identification of a would-be heiress to a large estate, but what it is that provides Sloan with the key to the killer is a tray laden with food and the matter of the labels that were switched on the show’s prize-winning tomatoes.

   In terms of loving portrayals of rural English eccentricities, I was reminded at first of Edmund Crispin’s tales of the redoubtable and resourceful Gervase Fen, but Aird’s brand of wackiness soon turned significantly more cynical, and its charms were eventually lost in the clutter of tediously interchangeable village people.

   While the story is competently told, it simply lacks the appearance of striving for any particular heights. There are a few sparks of wit that are struck, but they never seem to catch fire. The whole affair is already fading badly from memory, and by the time another month rolls around, I suspect it will have been all but forgotten.

Rating: C plus.