Catherine Aird Books In Order

Publication Order of Sloan and Crosby Books

Publication Order of Sloan and Crosby Collections

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Catherine Aird is the pen name of one, Kinn Hamilton who was born in the year 1930. Kinn has authored approximately twenty crime fiction books and numerous other short stories. Her literate, witty and deftly plotted books straddle the police procedural and cozy genres. Her books are somewhat similar to those written by Caroline Graham, Martha Grimes, and Margaret Yorke. Catherine Aird was born in the town of Huddersfield, Yorkshire. While growing up, she attended the Greenhead High School and the Waverly School, which are all located in the town of Huddersfield. During her tween years, Aird was bedridden due to an exceedingly serious illness. Once she fully recovered, she was hired by her father in his medical practice which is located in Sturry. Her very first novel was published in the year 1966 and was titled The Religious Body.

In the year 1990, Aird served as the head of Crime Writers Association. She was awarded a Masters of Art by the University of Kent and Golden Handcuffs by the Crime Writers Association. Aird has also been ordained as a member of the Order of the British Empire, because of her services for the Girl Guides. She currently resides in the village of Sturry. One of her most successful book series is the Chronicles of Callershire, a crime novel series that have been set in a fictional town of Callershire. The books in this series features the protagonist C.D Sloan, who works for the CID Department in Berebury.

Inspector Sloan

The Religious Body is the first installment in the Inspector Sloan book series by Catherine Aird. Being the first book in the Inspector Sloan series the author introduces the reader to one Inspector Sloan, an exceedingly perplexed man. Sloan has never entered inside a convent before. Throughout his life, he has had access to all types of female confinements such as hospitals, orphanages, prisons and even a girls boarding school. Sloan is confused about the rules and regulations, which govern the convent and how the same rules are going to affect the investigation that he is conducting. Despite the fact that this is a convent with strict rules and regulations thus anything out of the ordinary is going to be immediately noticed, Sister Anne’s sudden death still occurred within the premises.

Sister Anne had been hit over her head with a blunt instrument, and then thrown over the steps of the convent with the aim of making her death, look like an accident. By good luck, the doctor who attends to the nuns noticed that there were some irregularities with the accident and thus insisted that the local police should be informed about the case. It is at this point that Inspector Sloan steps into the scene together with his assistant who is known as Constable Crosby. The two detectives must be able to identify who may have had ill intentions with the nun. While looking into her past, the two detectives discover that Sister Anne came from an exceedingly rich family and thus by looking at the timings of various deaths in the family, she was expected to inherit a huge sum of money.

Before meeting her death, Sister Anne had talked about her desire of ensuring that the convent benefited from her inheritance. Did by any chance one of her sisters speed her death so as to ensure that her inheritance came early or was it arranged by one of her family members to ensure that the money did not leave the family? To find the right answers that he needs, Inspector Sloan has to keenly, look into the past for answers. With that said, the author has presented a modern version of the classic British mystery. Her stories are not only cozy but are also exceedingly satisfying with great amounts of British wits. Baird’s descriptions give the reader a vivid picture while her characters are well grounded.

Another book in this series that performed extremely well is the second installment, Henrietta Who?. This installment begins one very early morning as the Village Mail Carrier; Harry Ford is making his day-to-day rounds on his bicycle. However, his peaceful daily run comes to a sudden stop when he finds a dead body lying alongside the main road. The dead woman’s body is identified as the one of Grace Jenkins, a widow who resided just a few miles away with her daughter. Henrietta was a college student in the same town. However, when the pathologist conducted his results, he disagrees that Henrietta was Jenkins’s daughter. Now, the question that everyone was asking is if Henrietta was not Jenkins daughter then whose daughter is she?

As the book continues, the two inspector discovers that Jenkins death was not an accident since she was run over twice by an unknown person. This is clearly someone who was more than determined to ensure that Jenkins was dead. All in all, Aird’s books are a mixture of police procedural and cozy. All the cases are conducted within an enclosed environment such as hospitals and colleges or a community where a similar feel will be attained. The characters within the book not only know one another by they also interact with one another in their day to day activities. The book’s plot is exceedingly complicated even for the author who is exceedingly great at inventive plots. Aird has done an excellent job in developing the plot perfectly and also uncovering the very first questions before concluding the mystery with satisfying answers.

All the characters in the book have been well developed especially Henrietta who apart from being a passive character has a great personality. Another character who has been well developed is Inspector Sloan who is not only good-natured but also exceedingly compassionate and calm with a great sense of humor. The great sense of humor is a great trait, especially when it comes to his line of work. It also assists him when dealing with his impatient and exceedingly funny detective, Crosby, whose main skill is driving. Crosby is usually notoriously fast but also a very skillful driver. All in all, this story is mainly not about the murder but rather about Henrietta’s origin an identity. This is a theme, which is usually exceedingly common in the author’s novels.