On her return from France, historical novelist Kate Ivory is invited next door, as a welcome home, by her new neighbours, Laura and Edward Foster. When she arrives she find her other neighbour, a lecturer at Bartlemas College, Oxford, Jeremy Wells, is also a recipient of the Fosters hospitality. On even so short acquaintance Kate is aware that her new neighbours are gossipy and makes a note not to become too involved with them, a wise decision, as although well meaning, they prove to be noisy and intrusive.
Needing concentration to work on her new book, Kate dons earplugs and her walkman and toils at her computer for most of the day. When she surfaces she is shocked to see from her window the bodies of two of her neighbours lying dead. On her answer phone are several messages from Jeremy asking her to get in touch with him urgently. When Kate does finally get in contact with Jeremy, he acts very mysterious and ask her to take a package to Alec a colleague at Bartlemas College, the only man he insists he can trust, but on meeting Alec, in company of the new college Master, Kate is not too sure. Having delivered the package, Jeremy then asks Kate to help him go into hiding. By this time Kate is convinced that Jeremy is delusional, but her friend Carmela has gone away on holiday and asked Kate to water her plants, not something Kate is particularly good at, and on the idea of killing two birds with one stone, she offers Carmela’s house to Jeremy, provided of course that he waters the plants.
This turned out to be a very enjoyable mystery. I think particularly because the protagonist was so sure that what was actually staring her in the face couldn’t be, because things like that don’t happen to ordinary people. When she finds herself in a potentially threatening situation she doesn’t initially react, as she says she didn’t want to appear to be acting girlie! I did enjoy that expression. One of the things I particularly liked about this mystery was that the protagonist has no police contact, no boyfriend in the police, to keep her up to speed on the current investigation. It was very much a Charles Paris situation. I have come to value these mysteries, there are not that many of them about now.
This is the first audio unabridged book I have listened to where the reader
is the author. Veronica Stallwood has a marvellous voice, to which I greatly
enjoyed listening. However, it was a reading, so there was no range of voices
for the different characters.
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Lizzie Hayes