The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell

 As a fan of mystery and detective stories I picked up The In Crowd as it was the winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel (2025) and found myself engrossed in the world of upper class British society, with garden parties at Richmond,  politicians and celebrities, drugs and champagne and young men rowing in the nearby River Thames. But all is not a party, a woman is pulled out of the Thames and Detective Caius Beauchamp is sent to the Richmond Station to investigate the murder. Strings have been pulled and it looks as if the victim may have links to people in high places. He and his teammates DS Matt Cheung and DC Amy Noakes look at the evidence which could be linked to embezzlement and fraud in an upper crust financial institution while also pursuing the disappearance of Eliza, a young girl who went missing from her prestigious school many years before. Caius becomes embroiled in high society figures and meets Callie, a milliner to the rich and famous.

The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of Caius with an emphasis on police procedure and Callie who fleshes out the main characters who feature in the high society that Caius is examining. Vassell is very clever with quirky banter and astute comments about trends and fashion and the humour lightens the darkness of some of the characters and events. It is fascinating when the author brings all the threads together in an unexpected way; many red herrings certainly will have readers looking for the murderer in various places.

I read The In Crowd as a stand-alone but enjoyed it so much that I immediately read The other half, which I would recommend reading first as it contains the story of Rupert, one of the least likeable characters in the book and fleshes out the characters of the detectives in more detail. The third in the series, A deadly inheritance, is equally engrossing and I look forward to more books from this talented author.

Themes: Murder, Detectives, Class barriers.

Pat Pledger