I am enamored of the Mark Treasure series by David Williams (1926-2003), 17 mysteries published between 1976 and 1993. Mark Treasure is Vice-Chairman of Grenwood Phipps & Co., merchant bankers of London. His actress wife Molly often accompanies him on his adventures. Treasure is clearly cousin to John Putnam Thatcher, Senior Vice-President of the Sloan Guaranty Trust bank in New York. Anyone who has read the Emma Lathen series will recognize many of the same themes transported across the Atlantic, including socially prominent but inept CEOs who must be managed carefully.
Treasure Up in Smoke (Collins, 1978) finds Treasure traveling to a tiny island in the West Indies where the economy rests solely on the production of highly coveted cigars that command a high price. The island has relied heavily on a single family serving as de facto governor and prime minister since its colonization by Westerners. The current squire has decided the cigar factory must be closed down for reasons not altogether clear until much later in the story. He is trying to decide how to replace the economic loss the closure of the cigar factory will cause. Turning part of the island into a tourist destination or producing sugar cane and rum are his current choices. Neither course of action is without problems.
Treasure is representing the sugar cane and rum interests. He has been assigned the dubious help of the CEO’s inept stepson, who performs up to the standards that Treasure expects. Similar to DS Crosby in Catherine Aird’s Inspector Sloan series, the stepson can’t do anything right. The tourist industry interests are represented by a couple who manage to offend almost everyone who might be of help to them.
The plot includes murder, arson, a journalist who shows up in the wrong places, a lame stranger whose business on the island is unknown, a prime minister with a wandering eye, his unhappy wife, a very old train engine, and assorted natives who see more than the authorities realize.
Like Lathen, Williams had a sly humor that worked its way into his writing. The incompetent nephew takes center stage most of the time, which gives Williams a lot to work with in terms of witty commentary. Still, he does not lose the thread of his plot, wrapping it up neatly with a couple of surprises. One of my favorites in the series.