Plutarch's Lives or Parallel Lives

There's some genuine cleverness relating to the murder plot and an effectively realized villainous figure in Frost. One clue stood out to me as especially subtle. However, this is otherwise a somewhat frustrating reading experience, with an obvious killer due to a quickly-pruned suspect list and the engaging character drama of Ripples traded for a petty dispute between Harte's subordinates. Still, it's hard to be negative about a book this short...