Candles for the Dead

by Frank Smith

Book Overview

Candles For The Dead by Frank Smith released on Sep 24, 2000 is available now for purchase.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373263635
• ISBN13: 9780373263639
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Worldwide Library
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent police procedural

When Beth Smallwood is found bludgeoned to death in her church, where she had gone late one evening to put out fresh candles, DCI Neil Paget and his team of investigators have to dig into her ordinary middle-class life in their hunt for suspects. While keeping in mind that her murder may have been opportunistic: was she simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? They learn that Smallwood wasn't a wealthy or prominent person. Nor was she in a perilous line of work: she held a modest office job in a local bank. She had reared her only son, now a young adult, as a single working mother. She wasn't a domestic tyrant, neighborhood busybody or small-time blackmailer. The dour Paget finds plenty of suspects in Beth's modest life. She had embezzled money on a modest scale to bail her sociopath son out of legal jams while living in deep denial about his nature. On the night she died she had finally seen the light, ordered him out of her house, and made an appointment for the next day with the police to confess to lying for him in the past. But her son wasn't the only one with motive to kill. Beth had been raped at work by a predatory supervisor, after he promoted her. And the male co-worker who had hoped for the promotion, but instead was laid off, burned with resentment. Smith's protagonist, Paget, is not very interesting or likable - he's emotionally stuck in grief over the death of his wife some years previously and in this novel exhibits all the emotional affect of a frozen flounder. However, I think that Paget is a nice counterpoint to all those interesting and likable fictional British cops, such as Inspector Wexford. Of course, the author can't rely on Paget's nonexistent charm or his barren private life to keep the story moving and hold the reader's interest. Instead, Smith does that very well with a good plot and solid supporting characters. I was kept guessing whodunit until the last few pages.

Fairly good

Albeit the book is fast paced and well written it has some stories that doesn't belong to the book unless you read the prequel -mind that this is my first book of the series. The gist of writing several books of the same plot is that no-matter if you skip the first book, in the second one you must know briefly what happened in the first i.e. here you don't know what happened with Paget and Andrea. It has other flaws as the one that the dog saw the sprawled body in the meadows and nobody else as well as the guy who stole the bike.

Excellent British Police Procedural

A rather bleak, but very good book. CANDLES centers around the murder of a woman victimized by three separate assaults on the last day of her life. And she had endured a lot of misery before that, too. DCI Luke Paget, coping with the imminent third anniversary of his wife's death, investigates, assisted by a whole lot of other coppers. There's an incident room coordinator, various sergeants, criminologists, and many other police personnel. I enjoyed the depiction of these characters' work roles and relationships, and found the book excellent, well-plotted, and very well-written. Smith's FATAL FLAW is also terrific.

another excellent Inspector Paget mystery

Candles for the Dead is a wonderfully written British police procedural that had me guessing until the very end. Smith is a very talented author, (Fatal Flaw and Stone Dead are good reads as well), and I can't wait for the next Inspector Paget mystery to arrive.

Excellent Paget entry

Everyone involved in the investigation seems a bit stunned by the murder weapon and the location of the crime scene. Someone used a candlestick to pound widow Beth Snakewood to death inside the St. Justin Chapel. Detective Chief Inspector Neil Paget and his junior partner Sergeant John Tregalles investigate the brutal slaying. The problem confronting the two police officers is that the victim seems to have several individuals who have strong motives to kill her. Her former peer on the job is obviously jealous of Beth's recent promotion, which he feels she gained through her figure rather than her figuring. Her boss raped but promoted Beth. The woman's violent son loses his control very quickly. Then there is the unknown person who tipped the police off on many of their early inquiries. The only thing the two cops know is that they have their work cut out for them if they want to identify the killer. CANDLES FOR THE DEAD, the third Paget mystery (see FATAL FLAW and STONE DEAD) is an invigorating village cosy who-done-it that will grip readers from start to finish. The investigation takes center stage in the engaging story line. However, a subplot involving Paget's personal life adds much depth to the tale. Frank Smith provides fans of the regional (outside London) British police procedural sub-genre with a fast-paced, old fashion, but enjoyable detective story.Harriet Klausner