The Beauty Queen Killer

 The Beauty Queen Killer (aka A Beauty for Inspector West [original]; So Young, So Cold, So Fair; 1954) by John Creasey

When beautiful Betty Gelibrand is found strangled after she and her boyfriend Harold Millsom have a very public argument, Detective Inspector Turnbull, is sure this is going to be an easy one. Especially after he and Chief Inspector Roger West find out Millsom also beat up the man who overheard the argument. And that during the argument, Millsom had said that he'd rather see her dead than "ruined by that theater mob." Millsom runs the boyfriend to earth atop a church roof, but the young man falls from the roof and dies before he can be questioned properly. It looks like the case will be closed without the cost of a trial.

West, on the other hand, isn't convinced and soon discovers that another pretty young woman was strangled previously in similar circumstances...and that both women were contestants in the same beauty contest. And another young woman follows the first two.It isn't long before he and Turnbull are in a race to find the killer before s/he eliminates all bathing beauties. Is it a case of someone getting rid of the competition for their favorite? Or does someone just hate beauty that much?

Generally speaking, I have enjoyed the Inspector West police procedural series. I've given out mostly four stars with one three star winner in previous My Reader's Block reviews. But this one falls flat for me. I really don't care for Turnbull at all and, like West's fellow police officers, I can't for the life of me figure out why West doesn't take him down a peg or two from the very beginning. Turnbull is cocky and overbearing and very full of himself. He may be a bright young detective but he goes plunging in when a lighter touch is required and he says things to West that no subordinate should ever say unless a relationship has been established that would allow for him to speak his mind freely (it hasn't). And even then, some of the things he says are so out of line, that a good working relationship wouldn't excuse them. On top of it all, he's not even really contrite when West solves the murders and saves him (Turnbull) from the discipline he's got coming from the higher ups. He's been busted back to Detective Sergeant but he tells West "What the hell difference do you think a year or two is going to make? I'll catch up and pass you before you're really awake!" The quote my edition has from Anthony Boucher, indicates that Boucher thought this conflict between West and Turnbull "affords Creasey a chance for the most rounded characterization he has written." Um. If you say so, Mr. Boucher. 

Not my favorite Inspector West novel by a long shot. ★★

First line: "But listen, Betty," Harold Millsom said huskily, "it won't get you anywhere.

Last line: Two days later he was briefing Detective Sergeant Turnbull about a job in the East End.

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Deaths = 7 [five strangled/suffocated; two poisoned]