"Positive Vetting" by Stephen Murray

I am behind on my short story reading and also on my posts for the Deal Me In Challenge. Every other week I draw one card from a deck to randomly pick from a group of short shories. This has been a very successful experiment to see if I will grow to appreciate short stories. This is the 13th story I have read out of my planned 26 stories for the challenge. (My list of short stories for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge is here. Jay at Bibliophilopolis hosts the challenge.)

"Positive Vetting" is another great story from 1st CULPRIT: A Crime Writer's Annual, edited by Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin. And this time I was introduced to an author that is totally new to me: Stephen Murray.

This story is set in London and features a narrator telling about a murder he investigated back in 1944. The story is as much about how the war affected those involved, whether on the home front or in the fighting, as it is about the murder. A fine story with some twists and turns along the way.

Stephen Murray is the author of six crime fiction novels featuring Chief Inspector Alec Stainton, published between 1987 and 1994. Other than that, I don't know that much about him. Martin Edwards at Do You Write Under Your Own Name? is a fan. There are two posts at his blog featuring Murray: Susan Moody and Stephen Murray and Forgotten Book - Death and Transfiguration.