P Smith reviews FMPT

 For Murder Press 3

Benedict Aberthorp, private investigator, had all his ducks in a row. Cases were for the most part, simple research for unhappy people wanting to know if their spouse was cheating on them, sometimes a missing person to find. He considered himself a `truth gatherer,’ someone who helped people find answers to whatever problem was upsetting the normal balance of their lives.

Murder was not something he had encountered in his time as a P.I. Until, that is, the morning he received a call from a man insisting he see him at the earliest possible time. When Aldo Sherwin came to his office that afternoon, after securing an early appointment due to the fact that Benedict had just completed his last case, he was a man in distress. His estranged wife had been found murdered and he was convinced the police had their eyes on him as a chief suspect. He needed Benedict Aberthorp to find the killer, and as soon as possible.

The case takes Benedict and his able assistant, Gail Hollingford, on a trail of mystery and intrigue involving a group of one-time friends, each of whom it appears have secrets they mean to keep hidden, whatever the cost. As he delves deeper, he begins to suspect that Francine’s murder may not be the isolated incidence he’d thought he was investigating but was somehow linked to a long ago lost love, a death by `accident’ and another death that may or may not be suspicious but definitely had undertones connecting it to the present dilemma.

The closer Benedict gets to the truth, the more certain he is that in finding Francine’s murderer, the truth of past mysteries will also fall into place. But at what cost? And to whom?

PMA Hayes may be just the author murder mystery readers worldwide need to help fill the gap left by the author PD James and her much loved detective, Adam Dalgleish.

After reading ‘For Murder Press 3’, I am definitely looking forward to the next Benedict Aberthorp murder mystery.