Every five years for fifty years, a group of friends have met for a reunion stemming from their school days. A young new teacher brought together promEvery five years for fifty years, a group of friends have met for a reunion stemming from their school days. A young new teacher brought together promising students for an "Only Connect" field trip to Holy Island, an island cut off from the mainland each day at high tide. It was a time to connect as students and friends; to learn more about themselves and each other. Philip, Annie, Rick, Louisa, and Kenny spending a weekend of rituals together--quiet time in the chapel, meals prepared a certain way and always by Annie, telling the same stories over and over, and each year learning one more new thing about one of them.
After the way their first reunion ended, it's kind of surprising that they still get together. There was an argument between Rick and Isobel, older sister to Louisa and a member of the Only Connect group. Isobel stormed off in her car, headed for the mainland. But the tide was rising and she didn't make it. It was put down as an accident--a young woman driving too fast across the causeway with water making everything slick.
Now, fifty years later, Rick's "new thing" for the group is the revelation that he's writing a novel based on real life. Is it based on his life in the limelight? Up till recently, he'd been a celebrity on television. But his ratings had been dropping and then sexual misconduct allegations forced the show to fire him. Is he going to use fiction to tell his side of the story? But certain comments made during the course of the evening seem to indicate that the events he has in mind may relate to his "connection" friends. When he's found hanging in his bedroom the next morning in what might have been taken for suicide, Inspector Vera Stanhope soon realizes they are dealing with murder. But who needed Rick to die and why? Vera has a feeling that the events of fifty years ago are important, but every question seems to lead to a dead end. Until a conversation late in the investigation shows Vera what they all had been missing.
This is the first Vera Stanhope book I've read (yes, jumping in late to the series--but it doesn't seem to have hurt my enjoyment or understanding of the book). Cleeves does another great job with setting and character in this outing. The island has an almost mystical quality and the fog plays an important role just as it did in her book Thin Air which I read earlier this month. The group of friends is portrayed as a tight-knit bunch, but we soon know that they all are keeping things back and have secrets--not just from the police, but from each other as well. Cleeves does well with her red herrings--within the group and with various motives and suspects outside the group. I changed my mind several times about who did it and when Vera went to what I thought was her final interview, I thought I had landed on the right one.
Spoiler Alert: I didn't. So, well done, Ann Cleeves. An enjoyable mystery (except for that final death--I'm not a fan of that one) and now I believe I need to go back to the beginning and work my way forward.
A group of friends from college go to Unst in Shetland, the northernmost point in the UK, to celebrate the hamefarin (homecoming/reception) of one of A group of friends from college go to Unst in Shetland, the northernmost point in the UK, to celebrate the hamefarin (homecoming/reception) of one of their group. After a London wedding ceremony, Eleanor Longstaff and Polly, along with husband Ian Longstaff and partner Marcus (respectively), are on hand when Caroline Lawson and Malcolm Lowrie go to Malcolm's home in Shetland to continue the festivities. The foursome rent a cottage and plan to make a holiday week of it. Eleanor is a television director who is planning a show about why/how smart people believe in ghosts (to put it simply). Unst has its own ghost--Peerie Lizzie, a young girl who was drowned decades ago and whose appearance foretells either pregnancy or death. Eleanor claims to have seen the ghost and then she disappears the night of the hamefarin. Her body is found later lying face up in a shallow pool of water--arranged as if for a painting.
Detective Jimmy Perez and his superior officer Willow Reeves are sent to investigate and stay at an inn owned by a former magician and his partner. There are plenty of secrets to uncover and it's difficult to determine if the killer is one of the London outsiders or one of the island's inhabitants. Then they discover that Eleanor had already made contact with some of the inhabitants about the ghost and had recorded the interviews...and the recorder is missing. After Jimmy finds the recorder among the things belonging to the former magician. When the magician is killed as well, Jimmy begins to wonder if the case is somehow connected to that long ago drowning. As with most things in life, it's a little more complicated than that.
As with the previous Jimmy Perez book I read, the setting is just as much a character as the people in the book and at times more so than some of them. The fog coming down regularly gives the island an even more secluded feel than its location. When the characters walk along the coast you feel like you're right there with them and when Polly follows the girl who looks just like the ghost and then gets disoriented in the fog you feel lost as well. Cleeves uses various characters' points of view to give a very full picture of the place. The characters are solid as well, though I would have enjoyed it if Ian and Marcus had been fleshed out a bit more.
My biggest quibble is with the murderer's motive. I can definitely see that motive as valid for a certain type of person. But I don't think the interactions with that character and what we learn about them through others' points of view give us enough substance to have figured that motive out on our own. Given what we find out along the way I don't see how the murderer could have misinterpreted the situation in the way they did...a misinterpretation that spurred them on to murder. And to murder not once, but twice. Based on that information the second murder is even less logical than the first.
But overall, a good mystery with good characters and sense of place. ★★★ and 3/4. [rounded up here]
Christopher and his distinguished grandfather, renowned former Inspector Lord Edgington, are back on the hunt for a murderer. It's the last day of terChristopher and his distinguished grandfather, renowned former Inspector Lord Edgington, are back on the hunt for a murderer. It's the last day of term at the Oakton Academy for Distinguished Young Gentleman and Christopher thinks the worst thing that might happen is a beating at the hands of the school bullies who have been after him ever since he laughed at a smiling pigeon and the ringleader thought Christopher was laughing at him. Or maybe it will just be that he has to run in the sixth form's cross country race--and Christopher hates few things more than running. But when his ex-bully, turned protector and friend Marmaduke asks him for a favor, he little suspects that he'll find a dead body.
Marmaduke had planned a grand joke on the cruel headmaster--a particularly hideous drawing that would be on display before the entire school on parents' day. But the headmaster caught him in the act of setting up the display and plans to out Marmaduke to his despicable father, so Marmaduke asks Christopher to slip into the headmaster's office while the race is being run and retrieve the drawing. Christopher is reluctant to risk the headmaster's wrath until he realizes that he will get out of running the race...and when he reaches the headmaster's office, he realizes that he won't have to worry about the headmaster's wrath ever again. Somebody has put an end to the man's cruelty for good. Fortunately, Christopher's grandfather is on hand to take over the investigation and bring the killer to justice.
I'm always a sucker for academically-inclined mysteries and one set during the Golden Age of Mysteries is definitely right up my alley. Fine setting, interesting characters, and a nice twisty plot with red herrings. What more could you ask for? Well, perhaps less of Christopher running on in the almost wrap-up scene. His grandfather gathers all the suspects, lines them up, and then tells Christopher to give them the big reveal of how "they" figured it all out. Except Christopher hasn't got all the threads in his hands and has to wander around and tell every single little detail that we, the readers, have already gotten first hand as we followed the sleuths around. It was just a tad bit tedious, especially since Christopher has none of the aplomb and self-assurance of a Poirot doing the same stunt in Agatha Christie. If you're going to put on a big show at the end, you should at least be absolutely sure that you're right. But, of course, Lord Edgington does do the honors eventually when we get to the absolutely final wrap-up scene.
This is a very good second story in the series. Often sophomore efforts tend to lose a little of the shine when debut novels have been strong. But other than the wrap-up scene, Brown does an excellent job continuing the series. I look forward to the next one (which I just recently picked up at a used book store). ★★★ and 1/2 (just slightly weaker than the debut--so not rounding up)
It's time once again for me to have an annual reading of/listening to at least part of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels on audio and so I've listened to the It's time once again for me to have an annual reading of/listening to at least part of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels on audio and so I've listened to the Gaudy Night (1935), the penultimate book in the Wimsey/Vane mystery cycle. I've read this one and listened to it so often that I don't have much that is new to say this time. Except that like Harriet and her ivory chessmen, I developed an unreasonable love for the Lord Peter Wimsey books over thirty years and I must revisit them regularly even though I practically know them by heart. And it is always a pleasure to listen to Ian Carmichael read the stories. If you would like a more indepth look at my thoughts on this particular book, please see my reviews on other editions....more
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