Spence in Petal Park by Michael Allen

This is the first of Michael Allen’s Mystery/Crime stories we have read. After reading Colin Forbes book “Blood Storm” Allen’s book was sheer delight. Murder, blackmail, seduction build up an intriguing crime for Det. Sup. Spence to solve. There are plenty of suspects, after all, the victim is a rich young man with a shady life-style. He’s involved in dubious business practices and has too much interest in the pupils at the local private school for girls. Love and hate for the dead man, are woven into an intriguing picture of how the victim lived before meeting his brutal death.All the characters are believable and not OTT, which is what I like. Any of the suspects had good reason to kill the man but I have to admit, I failed to guess the culprit.My husband’s comment,  “A good mystery, and reads well.” As an afterthought, he added, “In a few places, repetition of names within paragraphs was annoying.” (You notice this more when reading aloud.)Well, we are both looking forward to another Spence novel by Michael Allen. (And we have two more to read.)