The Great Crime of Grapplewick (Eric Sykes, 1984)

The Great Crime of Grapplewick is the 2nd novel in The Eric Sykes Compendium, although it's chronologically the first, from 1984. I'm struggling to find information online of all the books written by Sykes, so maybe it's just these three novels and his excellent biography If I Don't Write It Nobody Else Will (wonderful title too). 

I read UFOs Are Coming Wednesday some time ago, and to be honest it wasn't as good as I was expecting and I'm hard pressed to remember anything about it now. I've come away from Grapplewick more satisfied (although the copy in the book is riddled with appalling spelling mistakes). Set in the fictious northern town of Grapplewick (as UFOs..., from 1995, was), it follows nearly released prisoner Terence and his bumbling Irish sidekick Rembrandt as they initially try to find the elusive Helliwell, and then plot a robbery. Peopled with funny characters, from the incompetent fire brigade, who trade bits of kit and their antique fire engine for new instruments for their band, to the hopeless town council, headed by mayor and fire chief Mr Thurk, the story ambles along nicely. 

Wryly amusing rather than gut-wrenchingly hilarious, Sykes depicts a sleepy little post-WW2 town with style, and makes the characters believably dim while also fairly farcical. There is some romanticism of the period and the simpler life, as evidenced by the somewhat downbeat epilogue that sees high rise flats erected, destroying the community spirit of the post war years. A nice diversion from the usual grisly thrillers I tend to go for.