Sloan and Crosby Books In Order

Publication Order of Sloan and Crosby Books

Publication Order of Sloan and Crosby Collections

The Sloan and Crosby series is a renowned crime fiction and mystery series written by one of the noteworthy English authors named Kinn Hamilton McIntosh, under the pen name of Catherine Aird. This series is comprised of a total of 24 books, which were released between the years 1966 and 2013. Author Catherine has introduced the central characters in this series as Christopher Dennis Sloan and Willian Crosby. Christopher Sloan is described in the role of the Detective Chief Inspector from England, while William Crosby is shown as a Detective Constable. Even though both of them are the main characters, Sloan has a slightly major role and Crosby’s role appears to be more as a supporting character. This is the reason why the series is sometimes referred to as Inspector Sloan series. In some places, it is called by the name The Calleshire Chronicles. The reason behind keeping this name as the title of the series is that author Catherine has set the plots of the books in a fictional Kent based county named Calleshire. Throughout the series, Christopher Sloan is commonly referred by the name of Seedy. His character description as given by author Catherine is that he is a married man. During his spare time, Inspector Sloan likes to grow roses in his garden. Constable William Crosby is depicted as a hapless sidekick of Sloan. Author Catherine began writing this crime fiction series in the year 1966 and released its debut book in the same year under the title of The Religious Body.

According to author Catherine, the series is still running well as she is working on a new plot and is expected to publish it very soon. She keeps adding a new mystery novel to the series at regular intervals. A number of literary magazines have praised the series by saying that it should not be missed by the mystery lovers as it contains some wonderful mysteries with intricate plots, comic touch, as well as literary charm. Sloan, who is often called by his colleagues as Seedy, is serving as a Detective Inspector for a long time. Outside of his professional life, he is happily married and is fond of growing roses. In each book, he is shown receiving help from Constable Crosby in his attempt to solve the mysteries. Crosby is shown as more of a hapless, slow thinking, and fast driving young man. He is avoided by most of his colleagues. The only person who deals nicely with and says kind words is Sloan’s wife, Margaret. The books show that Sloan gets pressurized with work load very frequently by his superior officer named Superintendent Leeyes. Very often in the series, the two gentlemen are shown indulging in labored conversations with each other that pretty much summarize the settings. Apart from these characters, the other important ones who make frequent appearances include Dr. Dabbe, Dyson, and Inspector Harpe. Dr. Dabbe is described as a lugubrious pathologist, while Dyson is shown as a police photographer who loves captions. Inspector Harpe, who often called as Happy claims that he never found a thing in his life to smile about. The interesting settings of the series in the Calleshire county are often shown turning on the ecclesiastical matters, thereby depicting the deep knowledge possessed by author Catherine about the canon law.

One of the successful books of the series is titled as ‘Amendment of Life’. The Minotaur publication released it in 2002. The start of the books shows that Sloan and the CID of Calleshire county are used to the usual oddity in the relatively peaceful part of the countryside. However, some strange things have taken place lately in the town. Firstly, a dead body is discovered in the showpiece yew maze’s center in the Tudor-era house known as Aumerle Court. The Court’s elderly chatelaine named Miss Daphne Pedlinge is the first one to spot the body. She asks the groundskeeper to enter into the center portion of the maze and check whether the man is actually. Following her orders, the groundskeeper goes and finds that the man is dead indeed. At the same time, a slaughtered rabbit is found on the doorstep of a Bishop in a town called Calleford, located a few miles away. The discovery of the slaughtered seemed to be as portentous as the lifeless body discovered in the maze at Aumerle Court. The job of finding out the reality behind both the mysteries arrives on the desk of Inspector Sloan. With the assistance of Constable Crosby, he is asked to uncover the reasons behind the strange happenings. The deeper they indulge into the investigation, the more shocking twists and turns they come across. Finally, both men decide to take a more aggressive approach in the case so as to solve and close it once and for all. Once again the fans and critics lauded author Catherine for delivering this engrossing and lively novel.

One of the other exciting mystery books written in the series by Catherine Aird is entitled ‘Chapter and Hearse’. This book too was released by the Minotaur books in 2003. Author Catherine has mentioned the primary characters in this plot as Inspector Christopher Sloan, Superintendent Leeyes, Constable Crosby, Henry Tyler, and Malcolm Venables. At the start of the story, author Catherine has shown that a wealthy businessman is found dead under strange, suspicious conditions. Author Catherine has stated that a Christmas spent with the family gives out more drama than anyone could expect. In another case, a young girl is shown accusing the hospital of being responsible for the death of her grandmother, in which she was receiving treatment. Along with these two cases, Inspector Sloan is also asked to investigate a clansman’s death from 16th Scotland, which is believed to be how it initially appears. Sloan is once again joined by his always constant, enthusiastic, and helpful sidekick, Constable Crosby, to carry out the investigations. The trail takes the two men to the Foreign Office’s Henry Tyler. Crosby and Sloan also come across Malcolm Venables, a mysterious member of the Secret Service, as well as Sheriff Rhuaraidh from the sixteenth century Scotland, while investigating the cases. Once again, author Catherine’s mystery book appears to be a collection of delightful, playful, and literate tales that takes the readers through a different world of crime, mystery, and punishment. The mixture of charming wit, clever writing, and deft plotting of author Catherine helped the book to gather a lot of readers that eventually helped it to become successful. The book’s success shows that Catherine is a gifted storyteller.