"Every glimpse heightened the sense of unreality of living with the woman he loved, but living with her in name only"

Miss Christie Regrets is the second in Guy Fraser-Sampson's 'Hampstead Murders' series which sees  a team of detectives solving a local murder which harks right back to the golden age of crime fiction. In this case the team investigate the murder, by a blow from a police man's truncheon no less, of a respected archivist and historian in his office at Burgh House. As the investigation continues the team are drawn into a link with an earlier crime at modernist icon the Isokon Building which was home, for a time, for Agatha Christie.

At times I struggled to remember that this is a contemporary set novel given that it has all the literary hallmarks of 1930s fiction but this is exactly what makes the novel so unique. Guy Fraser-Sampson builds a believable and thoroughly likeable set of characters especially in the case of the courteous love triangle between DCI Bob, Psychologist Peter and DCS Karen whose hips appeared to 'pivot around a plane of infinite geometrical smoothness', who effortlessly inhabit this idiosyncratic little world.

As the police procedure continues the narrative does, at times, jar with its mentions of Oyster cards, smart phones and the internet which seems at odds with the tweed wearing folk of Hampstead village but the pace is steady and the story unfolds with well honed timing.  For me, the novel could have focused more on the Walter Gropius inspired Isokon flats which are so iconic that they would make a striking book cover. As a Hampstead symbol the flats on Lawn Road are more a bit player than the lead role they deserve to play.

That said, Miss Christie Regrets is an expertly written and structured story which I read as an homage to crime writers such as Queen Agatha Christie herself. This is middle class, Sunday night TV, fare which lacks the physicality of much contemporary crime fiction yet makes up for it with buckets full of politeness and good manners. Guy Fraser-Sampson not only adroitly understands mid century crime fiction but in the 'Hampstead Murders' is actually adding to the literary canon.

I read this novel in paper back mostly on the train into Marylebone (not far from Hampstead!)

Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser-Sampson published by Urbane Publications, 263 pages.