View source for A Commonplace Killing by Sian Busby

{{infobox1
|title=A Commonplace Killing
|sort=Commonplace Killing
|author=Sian Busby
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=When Lillian Frobisher's body is found on a bomb site in July 1946 the police can't understand what she was doing there - or why her husband didn't realise that she was missing.  An atmospheric whodunit from a talent we'll sadly see no more of. Recommended.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=304
|publisher=Short Books
|date=January 2014
|isbn=978-1780722061
|cover=1780722060
|aznuk=1780722060
|aznus=1780722060
}}

In July 1946 two schoolboys found the body of a woman on a bombsite in north London.  It's a while before she's identified as Lillian Frobisher, but that produces more problems.  Lillian was - apparently - a respectably married woman but the encounter on the bomb site had been sexual and almost certainly consensual.  And why was her husband not aware that his wife was missing?  His position looks even worse when it emerges that the body was lying on an expensive mackintosh sold in the store where he's a doorman.  But was Lillian quite as respectable as she would have had everyone think?

Sometimes you have to separate a book from the hype and this, sadly and for the worst of reasons, is one of those cases.  Sian Busby died in 2012 of lung cancer, despite never having been a smoker and the final pages of the book were transcribed from her notebook by her husband Robert Peston, BBC News's Business editor. (10p per copy sold will be donated to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.)  She was just forty one and left two sons.  It is desperately sad but I'd hate for you to go away thinking that this was a sympathy-and-good-cause buy, because it's a lot more than that.  The book might well have benefitted from a final authorial polish but put that aside and read with confidence.

Busby has the time perfectly.  Rationing was rampant and coupons were worth good money.  People were frequently hungry and there was a commonly-held view that British people were going hungry to feed Germans.  We'd won the war but were in danger of losing the peace.  Food and clothing assumed an importance out of all normal proportions in most people's lives.  Black marketeering was in danger of becoming a respectable career choice and Jim Cooper, the Divisional Detective Inspector in charge of the Frobisher case, normally spends his time chasing the people who have the goods.  The atmosphere was almost melancholy.

You'll need to relax into the book to start with as the story jumps back and forth from the time just before Lillian's death to the investigation afterwards.  In the early pages I could have put the book down.  Persevere because as you get into the story you'll find that the people get under your skin.  DDI Jim Cooper is a desperately lonely man - it's almost palpable as it comes off the paper - and it's an elegant contrast to the woman who becomes his assistant, Policewoman Tring. It's neatly done.

I've been told that 'whodunit' is obvious from early on - but it wasn't to me.  I waivered between a couple of people with a few 'solutions' in mind but I did find the ending particularly moving and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

From just before the war and in Dublin you might enjoy [[The City of Strangers by Michael Russell]].  We think you'll also enjoy [[London Calling: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan]].

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