Hardcastle's Spy (Hardcastle Mysteries)

The first of a new First World War detective series, introducing the pipe-smoking Detective Inspector Hardcastle, bluff straight-talker, canny investigator and no respecter of privilege. In a London shocked and bereaved by reports of the first days of the Somme, a woman is found murdered, but Hardcastle's forthright and commonsense approach does not sit comfortably with the help--and hindrance--afforded by MI5.