‘Dying in the Wool’ by Frances Brody
Published by Piatkus , October 2009.
ISBN: 978-0-7499-4187-1

This mystery novel is set in 1922 in the Yorkshire village of Bridgestead and is the first of a series featuring Kate Shackleton, widowed in World War I. Kate, anxious to preserve her independence, undertakes searches for soldiers missing presumed dead in the conflict but her friend Tabitha’s request to find out what happened to her father, the millowner Joshua Braithwaite, who, after an attempted suicide (at the time a criminal offence), went missing in Yorkshire in 1916 is rather different. Kate’s enquiries uncover uncomfortable truths for it seems that many people were involved with Joshua, not always happily. His wife Evelyn, for instance, who did not love him; his cousin the mill manager Neville Stoddard who was in love with Evelyn; Tabitha’s fiancé Hector Gawthorpe who seems to be hiding a secret; Dr Gregory Grainger, warden of the asylum where Joshua was confined after his suicide attempt and from where he went missing; Paul Kellett, a millworker, and his wife Lizzie; Agnes, Joshua’s secret millgirl mistress, among others. . .

The story, with its secure setting in the richly-detailed woollen industry, is an excellent read. The characterisation is strong and convincing and the sense of period well conveyed. It succeeds on its own terms, without the sadistic violence of some crime fiction condemned by the crime writer and critic Jessica Mann (Observer, October 25, also BBC Radio 4 Today programme October 26).
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Radmila May