When Murphy's Harbour Police Chief Reid Bennett travels to a remote gold-mining town to investigate its alleged police corruption, he finds himself up against a group of ruthless and brutal cops
Born Edward John Wood in Shoreham, Sussex, England, he lived in London until the outbreak of the Second World War. Enforced relocation to rural Worcestershire, which left him with a lifelong love of the countryside, was followed by service in RAF Coastal Command. In 1954 he immigrated to Canada, where he was a policeman in Toronto for three years. In 1957 he joined MacLaren Advertising as a copywriter, eventually becoming a creative director. He now lives in Whitby, Ontario.
While employment in law enforcement and advertising provided food and shelter for his growing family, Wood found time to write and sell short stories to Canadian and American magazines and to write television plays; he also collaborated on the musical comedy Mister Scrooge, which was produced in Toronto and on cbc television. In 1974 he published a collection of Chekhovian short stories, Somebody Else's Summer.
His Dead in the Water (1984) won the Scribner's Crime Novel Award, and publication in the USA and Canada. The book featured a small-town policeman, Reid Bennett, and his dog Sam—the entire law enforcement needs of Murphy's Harbour, a fictional resort community in the Muskoka region of Ontario. Bennett's and Sam's popularity was enough to extend the series though Murder on Ice (1984) to its current tenth title, A Clean Kill (1995), and to have the books also published in England and in many translations. A second series featuring a peripatetic Toronto-based bodyguard, John Locke, has thus far extended to three titles: Hammerlocke (1986), Lockestep (1987) and Timelocke (1991).
As On The Inside: A Reid Bennet Mystery begins, newly Married Reid Bennett is the mining town of Elliot on an undercover assignment. He should have been away on his honeymoon with Freda. Instead, he is applying to be an officer on the local police force in the hopes that he can substantiate the rumors of police misconduct and corruption. It might have been more than a rumor, but the man who contacted the Provincial Police Commission was dead the day after he called to report the situation.
Whatever he knew and was going to tell investigators died with him. It is possible that the guy might have accidentally died as a result of drunk driving. Considering he had 14 years of sobriety, the crash could have just as easily been murder. Either way, the PPC need the situation evaluated and with the Elliot Police Chief accused by the dead man, they don’t know who else in that department they can trust.
The PPC know what Bennett did in Toronto and what he has been doing in Murphy’s Harbour the last couple of years. He is a good cop and one that can hold his own in physical situations when needed. Thanks to media coverage about what happened in Toronto a few years back and a couple of more recent cases in Murphy’s Harbour, Bennett has ready-made reputation which should work in his favor on the undercover assignment. Good thing Freda is willing to do what needs doing and Sam can go too. It will be a family affair in more ways than one.
On The Inside: A Reid Bennett Mystery is the 7th installment in a very good series that started with Dead In The Water. Published in 1990, the focus is on the mystery of what is going on in Elliot. That mystery focus means, as always, there is plenty of action in this one just like the other books in the series. This book is also a bit more police procedurally as much of the book is Bennett is actually working on shift duty with other officers.
Like the other books in the series, On The Inside: A Reid Bennett Mystery, is a good one.
On The Inside: A Reid Bennett Mystery Ted Wood Charles Scribner’s Sons 1990 ISBN# 0-684-19090-7 Hardback (also available in paperback and digital formats) 280 Pages
Material supplied by way of an Interlibrary Loan filled by the staff of the Tom Green County Library in San Angelo, Texas, and sent to the good folks of the Dallas Public Library. My sincere and appreciative thanks to all involved.