Banking on Murder

Description

Sir Ray Bims is about to be charged as the principal in a Caribbean bank that's laundering international drug money. Lord Grenwood, octogenarian chairman of Grenwood, Phipps, the London merchant bankers, is appalled. Three years ago he sold the Eel Bridge Rovers Football Club - known as the Eels - to Bims. The club was founded by Grenwood's grandfather and is still associated with the Grenwoods in the public's mind. Now his lordship wants to buy it back to avoid the suggestion of family involvement in Bims's disgrace. Only hours after refusing Grenwood's offer for the Eels, Bims commits suicide - except that Detective-Inspector Jeckels of the Fulham CID concludes gradually that it was murder. And he discovers a string of people with motive and opportunity to dispose of Bims - among them the husband of Bims's mistress; the Eels' manager whom Bims had been about to fire; a well-known concert pianist; a curiously religious pest controller; not to mention several Eels players, and Bims's wife and ex-wife. `Williams continues to astonish with his command of subtlety and assured comic invention' Daily Telegraph `A nicely wily Williams whodunit' Sunday Times

David Williams was a writer best known for his crime-novel series featuring the banker Mark Treasure and police inspector DI Parry. After serving as Naval Officer in the Second World War, Williams completed a History degree at St Johns College, Oxford before embarking on a career in advertising. He became a full-time fiction writer in 1978. Williams wrote twenty-three novels, seventeen of which were part of the Mark Treasure series of whodunnits which began with Unholy Writ (1976). His experience in both the Anglican Church and the advertising world informed and inspired his work throughout his career. Two of Williams' books were shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, and in 1988 he was elected to the Detection Club.