The Case of the Torn Yellow Socks Assumed published, copyright and written by Alan Hardy.
Inspector Cullot of Scotland Yard Mystery Series Book 4 is a continuation of the cases in which he appears to be a commanding figure requiring respect bordering on submission of his subordinates including Detective Constable Stephanie, his daughter who is beautiful, adoring, sexy but mostly sufficiently subservient, Sargent Watkins, a not overly bright police investigator and Blunt, a typically story book “Bobby” who records by trusty pencil stub and paper notebooks the Inspector’s words as well as a running description of all that occurs during each investigation. The latter individual seemingly is even less gifted than the Sargent, and both are completely enamored of the Inspector’s daughter. The plot is of the contrived variety in which wealthy men are killed when visiting high-end brothels by a woman who actually is of one nationality while having changed identities with that of others in the same apartment building. The dead men each are dressed wearing colors contained within the flags of the countries each supposedly represents. The story continues presenting more involving details and ends in the Inspector’s solving the case in a manner suitable to the tale.
Discussion: The author has written a tale in a humorous fashion once referred to as ‘slap-stick’ where characters of questionable intelligence face un-understood activity or level of conversation, and often speak repetitively and/or deal with an array of amusing situations. A series of incidents similar to an episode offered by the once immensely well-known comedy team of Abbot and Costello in their skit “Who’s on First”. If this is your type of comedy, this book is for you, but with a caveat. From this reviewer’s perspective, editing to remove the somewhat excessive repetitive verbalization describing the same material would enhance the presentation.
3* no doubt more *’s for readers who already seem to enjoy the author’s books.