The Methods of Sergeant Cluff by Gil North is one of a series of novels featuring the same main character – this is the second book in the series and it was first published in 1961. I understand that there was a TV series made at the time about this character but I haven’t seen it. Sergeant Cluff is the CID officer in charge of the small town of Gunnarshaw in rural Yorkshire. He has grown up there and knows the inhabitants and their histories very well. He is a loner, except for his devoted dog, and not very popular with his superiors.
A girl is murdered and the majority of the town are sure about the identity of the culprit, who was seen in the presence of the victim on the night that she died. Cluff, however, knows the man concerned and is sure that he is not the murderer. Cluff sets out to find the person who committed the crime by talking to everyone he can find in the town and putting together the information he uncovers with his knowledge of the people concerned. He is persistent, and ultimately successful.
The book is told from the viewpoint of a number of the characters, including Cluff’s boss Inspector Mole, who doesn’t like or trust his sergeant. A lot of the story is told through dialogue and the author uses local expressions and phrasing which I found easy enough to follow.
This isn’t a fast-paced book and neither is it really a police procedural because Cluff doesn’t do things by the book. It is more a study of a small Yorkshire town, the types of people that would live there, and what might cause the chain of events which ended in a death. I enjoyed following Cluff’s investigations and thought that the author created the atmosphere of the time and the place very well, although, on occasion, he veered close to stereotyping and making fun of people. I would read more in this series if I came across them.
Anne Is Reading 