Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire

July 6, 2020
Awkward attempts at humor and a dull plot mar this spinoff from Kasasian’s Gower Street series (Dark Dawn over Steep House, etc.). Betty Church, the goddaughter of eccentric detective Sidney Grice’s ward, March Middleton, has fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a Metropolitan Police sergeant. When she’s about to be invalided out of the force after losing a hand in the line of duty, Middleton pulls strings with the Home Secretary to ensure that Betty gets promoted to inspector and assigned to the East Suffolk Constabulary. There, she confronts rampant sexism and a string of baffling killings attributed to a vampire. The first victim, a junk shop owner, had wounds under his jaw that resemble tooth marks. Later, a seed merchant at a railway station dies from a bloody throat wound in broad daylight, and bystanders report seeing someone in a batlike cloak fleeing the scene. General silliness, including character names that smack of parody such as Fradigor Strynge, slows the momentum. Readers looking for a good balance of comedy and crime should stick with Lynne Truss.

September 1, 2020
On the eve of WWII, police officer Betty Church begins her new assignment in the town of Sackwater in Suffolk, England. It's a reluctant homecoming for Betty, who left the town years ago with plans of a big-city future. A dead body makes the homecoming even less enjoyable. Was the victim killed by someone with a sense of the macabre (there were two teethlike puncture marks on the victim's neck), or is there a dark presence in Sackwater? Betty is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, no matter what the risks. If this first installment is any indication, this new series by the author of the Gower Street Detective novels (to which this novel is tangentially connected) promises to be a lot of fun. Betty is a terrific character?smart, personable, and energetic. The mystery is well developed, too, with a few nifty surprises. A very good series launcher.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)