I’m going to guess that the fourth Constable Twitten mystery, Psycho by the Sea, makes a lot more sense to people who have read the earlier books in the series by Lynne Truss. It’s either that, or I just don’t have much of a sense of humor when it comes to madcap mysteries that make the police look like bumbling fools. I was never even a fan of “The Keystone Cops”. Constable Twitten is really the only intelligent member of the Brighton police force. And, he’s young and easily manipulated by Mrs. Palmeira Groynes, the charwoman and master criminal working out of the police station.

Constable Twitten is aware that “People always underestimate women.” All the problems at the Brighton Police Station in 1957 seem to revolve around women now that Inspector Steine is a celebrated hero for shooting a gang leader. The police commissioner sends a new secretary to assist Steine, and she pushes local gang leader Mrs. Palmeira Groynes out of her perfect job as charwoman at the police station.

In the meantime, an Austrian psychiatrist enters Broadmoor, and facilitates the release of a violent killer who has attacked police officers by chopping off their heads, and then boiling them. Adelaide Vine, who worked with the dead gang leader that Steine shot, has a new job at Gosling’s Department store. But Gosling’s was the target for Mrs. Groynes’ perfect Christmas week robbery, and she had it all set up. Constable Twitten’s disastrous attempts at driving, and Mrs. Groynes’ quiet maneuvers will bring all the action at Gosling’s to a murderous conclusion.

Psycho by the Sea is a madcap follow-up to Murder by Milk Bottle, with more gang members than cops on the streets of Brighton. While I’m not a fan, I’m sure fans of the series will be delighted with the latest elaborately plotted misadventures of the inept police force, and the women who manipulate them. The darkly humorous story will appeal to those who enjoy comic overtones in their crime novels.

Lynne Truss’ website is http://www.lynnetruss.com/

Psycho By the Sea by Lynne Truss. Raven Books, 2021. ISBN 9781526609878 (hardcover), 320p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley to review for a journal.