In the early 1990s, Simon Shaw wrote a series of novels starring Philip Fletcher who, in the first title
Murder Out of Tune, is a middle-aged, out of work actor who refuses to accept that his lack of success in the theatre has become a habit. During the opening tale, Fletcher is grouchy, petty, self-involved, self-pitying; he's envious of anyone who has success (including other actors, best friends and agents), and very good at self-sabotage. He is particularly miffed when a former friend, gay theatre star Gordon Fleming, gets all the roles (and wild acclaim) he believes he deserves. In a fit of rage, Fletcher accidentally kills him ... but realising he can't easily be caught, he allows Fleming's sometime boyfriend to take the fall. This starts Philip on a path of murdering his way to top -- a novel twist on the usual sexual route. Told from Philip's ever-changing perspective, the prose is witty and the twists and turns, right to the final pages, unexpected.
Unfortunately, Shaw's work is currently mainly out of print although you might find this title on the darknet or in paper in a second hand store.
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Long before Brother Cadafael turned Ellis Peters into a household name in the English-speaking world, the author began a series featuring Inspector George Felse, who is responsible for the lives of Comerford, a mining town in north eastern England. The evocatively named
Fallen into the Pit highlights the young men of the village, many recently returned from WWII, and their uneasy resettling into numbing village life ... with nasty, ungrateful ex-POW Helmut Schauffler in their midst. Published in 1951, this sometime dense tale reads much more as a character study than a mystery. The village characters, flawed and drawn in detail, is what keeps the reader's interest as the story itself barely inches along. Though partly police procedural, Felse's son, 13 y/o Dominic, is in truth the central character, actively sleuthing after discovering the body. This isn't a light and breezy read; but it does reward sticking with it.
The Felse series is in print in an expensive trade paper edition (as in abt $20 each) but may be available on the darknet or in paper in a second hand store.
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Toronto writer Lyn Hamilton wrote eleven volumes starring Lara McLintoch, an antiques dealer in Toronto's toni Yorkville district who spends most of her time at exotic archeological sites looking for treasures to bring home to her shop ... and stumbling across murders in the process. The first in the series, from 1997, is
The Xibalba Murders: it is set in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and more specifically the town of Merida. There is a good deal of license with historical fact, and the changes from the late 1990s to present day -- particularly the use of the Internet -- may be somewhat jarring to a present-day reader. Lara carries the full weight of the tale which careens between mystery, romance and Indiana Jones-like action. It's a pretty engaging read, on balance, although my interest flagged somewhat toward the end which then arrived with astonishing abruptness.
The series is published by Berkeley Prime Crime but since the author's pre-mature death in 2009, it is unclear if these will make it to e-book format; all titles are currently in paper at mass paper prices. More info here:
http://www.lynhamiltonmysteries.com/