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Book Review: Psycho by the Sea – Lynne Truss

In the latest book of this witty, charming and quirky Constable Twitten series (longlisted for the Crime Writers Awards Historical Dagger), Lynne Truss creates a historical romp of a tale. Trio of detectives Twitten, Brunswick and Steine are faced with the arrival of an escaped criminal who has a fondness for going specifically after constables.

It’s September 1957 in Brighton, and readers are thrown into a world of unexpected confidantes, lust, evolving department stores. This, and a whole host of surreptitious characters that are difficult to keep track of. 


One of these characters is Chaucer, a member of a local gang who escaped Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and disappeared part way through planning a huge heist. Obsessed with boiling the heads of policemen and rumoured to be headed towards the city, he is of great concern. Meanwhile at Gosling’s department store, an American researcher has been found dead in the music section.

A classic cosy crime novel, the fourth in the Constable Twitten series has you rampaging through the book to find out more, dying to know who’s involved and what happens to Steine and the other inspectors featured. Wonderfully written, Psycho by the Sea will have you revelling in details of 50’s outfits and interiors as much the gory detail of the heinous crimes; a frolicking page-turner. 

Psycho by the Sea is out in paperback 7th July 2022, published by Bloomsbury

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