Roger Ormerod (1920-2005) was an inventive and prolific author of crime fiction. After a career in multiple civil service positions, he took up writing and published nearly 50 books between 1974 and 1999. That’s almost two books a year.
His series characters were David Mallin, a private investigator; Richard and Amelia Patton, a retired detective inspector and his wife; and Philipa Lowe and Oliver Simpson, an amateur sleuth and a detective inspector. In addition, he wrote a number of stand-alone titles.
A Death to Remember (Constable, 1986) is an intriguing and impressive tale. Former Social Security Inspector Cliff Summers has returned to his hometown after 15 months recovering from severe head injuries. His memory is still full of gaping holes, so he doesn’t recognize Tony Clayton when he approaches him. Tony was found standing over Cliff’s unconscious and bloody body and was subsequently convicted of the assault. Tony wants to assure Cliff that he did not attack him and that he was wrongfully convicted. He also wants Cliff to find Tony’s wife, who has disappeared.
Jobless and homeless, Cliff is struggling to find himself again. He does not want to look for Tony’s wife but finds himself asking about her as part of his attempts to understand what happened on the day he was attacked. He was looking into events at the garage that the Claytons run that day but he does not remember why. Ormerod does a great job of portraying someone with amnesia, the flashes of memory that illuminate briefly the completely blank parts of his mind and just as quickly disappear. In no time at all, a murder tied to the Claytons’ garage occurs and Cliff is convinced it’s linked to his return and the questions he’s been asking. The police are not enthusiastic about his involvement.
Cliff’s memories begin to come back in bits and pieces, triggered by talking to this person and seeing another. His confusion is convincingly narrated as he tries to pull the segments together in a cohesive whole. His recovering memory poses a threat to a few people who would far rather that he did not remember what he was doing on the day of his near-fatal assault.
A very well done thriller. Tightly plotted and concisely written, Ormerod springs one surprise after another, right up to the last page and last paragraph of the story. I am definitely looking for more of his books.