A So-So Gently
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell hardcover original (1960).

Here, again, he was making a discovery – he, in his approach to a case, had never drawn up accounts of this kind. They were a compromise with the truth and he had automatically distrusted them; his way was to assemble the facts and to hold them suspended in his mind, where, by a sort of alchemy, they eventually moved into a pattern.

Gently with the Painters is a return to form for the Scotland Yard CID Central Office Inspector, after the previous investigation in Gently in the Sun (Gently #6 - 1959) which I reviewed as Not My Gently.

As usual, Gently is called in to a Norwich provincial investigation where the local authorities can't seem to build a sufficient case against their prime suspect, the husband of a murdered artist. The artist was the sole female member of a local artist's collective and although estranged from her husband, she would not grant him a divorce. Gently sees the case differently and begins to investigate the other artists of the group who each have their eccentricities and secrets to hide.

See cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
I could not locate a copy of the dust jacket of the original 1960 hardcover edition from Cassell. This cover from the 1963 Pan Books paperback edition is a suitable macabre substitute. Image sourced from Goodreads.

Trivia and Links
The dedication to Gently with the Painters reads as: “To the Norwich Twenty Group of Painters, who suggested, but are not portrayed as, the Palette Group of the novel.” Read more about the Norwich Twenty Group on Wikipedia here.

The George Gently books were adapted as the TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here. ( )

sort of all over the place. hard to follow. tis is the only book the library has. ( )

Entirely forgettable. Sexist and period in a particular English way. I sort of enjoyed it. ( )

I first ran into Chief Inspector George Gently in the TV series George Gently and was immediately a fan and learning that the series was based on the Alan Hunter books felt I must read one. While this novel is intriguing, it is nothing like the writing I experienced in the TV versions of the Hunter novels.

In this case, artist Shirley Johnson is murdered and placed behind a dumpster in the police station parking lot. Her husband former bomber pilot Derek Johnson is the immediate suspect and admits to a failed marriage he sought to get out of by divorce. Soon evidence of Shirley having several lovers in the art group of which she was a member makes Derek appear even more of a likely suspect.

As is usual in Gently's life as a police officer, his fellow officers jump on the early evidence as conclusive and do not look at the discrepancies.

When the sole female member of an art group is murdered and dumped outside police headquarters, Gently is brought in from London to search for the killer. In addition to the jibes from affronted local police, he has to contend with the eccentricities of the artists and the murdered woman's superstitious husband, a former bomber pilot with the RAF. The story flowed well until an extended interview near the end, supposed to show off Gently's style, instead became tedious. Hunter, who was also an RAF pilot in WWII, wrote and set his George Gently series mid-20th century, capturing the era distinctly. ( )