The witty and action-packed Psycho by the Sea carries readers along in surprising fits and starts, like a bumper-car ride. Elaborate schemes go awry, architectural follies self-destruct and the intelligence of several characters increases ever so slightly. This is a book in which there is candor (if not honor) among thieves.

The Wall Street Journal

Hilarious . . . The characters are delightfully overblown, the storyline whimsical . . . the funniest, the quirkiest and the most entertaining read of the bunch.

BookPage

Clever, intricately plotted . . . The complicated, often comic relationships among the principal characters provide much of the fun. Truss is unmatched in her ability to balance humor and crime.

Publishers Weekly

The craft and care with which author Truss weaves her facts into a richly narrated but utterly hilarious tapestry is amazing. The reader may find himself wondering how she manages to keep her facts straight as she throws his own mental processes into such a delightful muddle.

New York Journal of Books on A SHOT IN THE DARK

If P.G. Wodehouse had written a mystery starring the Keystone Kops, it would have read something like Psycho by the Sea, but it might not have been as funny. … The fourth Constable Twitten mystery is a Wodehousian delight, in which the witless Brighton Police are up against an escaped psychiatric patient with a penchant for killing cops.

Shelf Awareness

Fans of Truss's series will be delighted by the elaborately plotted misadventures of the inept police officers and the women who manipulate them. The darkly humorous story will appeal to those who enjoy crime with comic overtones.

Library Journal