The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths

1965 Brighton England. Bert Billington rich and famous impressario is found dead in his own home it seems very natural. He was in his 90s but when his own son blurts out to the police that he suspects his mother had a hand in the death, the police have got to take action, especially since a post mortem shows that he died of rat poisoning being ingested over a period of time. Brighton Police have got competition in the form of a private detective agency of two women - one a journalist and one a former detective herself who married the Chief Inspector and retired. Emma and Sam are hired by Verity - Bert's wife and slowly they untangle so much in the past life of Verity and Bert (who seemed to have no end of people who would be happy to see him dead). What especially marked it for me, was that women whether it was 1930s England or as recent as 1965 their position had not changed much. Slightly derogotary was the attitude of the Police towards fellow workers and did not give them the dignity of their position at all. It was an upward task all the time and women seemed to have to fight to get a position. Many just gave in timidly it seems. The detective story was an interesting one. Old characters coming up again. Sent by Mariner Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.