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Saturday September 30, 2023
Books in September
It is a bit of a cliche that fictional dead bodies are discovered by dog-walkers - probably based in reality as, out of necessity, they are often out early in green spaces - and dogs do like a good mystery...
So our story begins mundanely enough with VI exercising her dogs, who immediately, and irritatingly, rush off to find the inevitable dead body - but no - wait - they have actually found an injured young woman wedged awkwardly between rocks on Lake Michigan. The authorities are duly informed, and after a great deal of difficulty (and a lot of red tape issues for VI) the girl is taken to hospital. She seems unable to provide her identity and, somewhat mysteriously, her injuries seem to include burns...
When the girl subsequently absconds from the hospital, and then VI herself appears to be being pursued by threatening individuals, (among others, the more dubious members of her own family, and even some members of the police), she feels bound to investigate.
This is another case of family greed, and coercion, including corruption in high places and real estate fraud. Good thing we have VI to sort it all out....
by Andrew Taylor [Read by Philip Franks]
As ever, the murder mystery plots in these last three books are as excellent and sharply written as ever, and I will not describe the plots in any detail. However, looking back at these last three books, I realise I have been drawn much more into the social dramas of Lydmouth, and my interest in the characters (if it were not already quickened) has deepened. The characters have become far more three-dimensional than they were at first.
We were always privilege to Jill and Richard emotions and dilemmas, but over the series, the other more peripheral characters have become more fully rounded. I particularly liked the development of Richard's wife, who started out as an almost cardboard cut-out figure seen mostly through the eyes of her husband. We did experience her confusion over the emotional stalemate in her marriage, but mostly she existed only as a foil to demonstrate the difficulty of Richard's position and his increasingly conflicting emotions. By the fifth book we are made aware that Edith is no only an interesting and attractive woman in her own right, but that she has her own choices to make in life, with options other than to remain as an unappreciated fifties housewife and mother.
As to Richard and Jill - we move beyond the romance and yearning of unrealised passion, but in doing so the tawdry reality of an extra-marital affair is exposed. When Edith announces she is having a third child, a number of factors coincide, and Jill moves back to London - despite promises to the contrary, contact with Richard is broken. However, (of course), a year later or so, Jill is called back to act as editor of the Gazette, while her friends Charlotte and erstwhile editor Philip (who is the victim of a stroke) have their own stressed circumstances to contend with. Here we see another aspect of the post-war decline of the upper middle-classes in the shape of Charlotte, with her dwindling resources and social influence as a business woman in the community.
In the final book, we see a very different side to Richard. He served as a policeman in Palestine at the end of the forties, and his past has come back to haunt him; he is threatened, blackmailed, and finally suspected of murder. Previously solid and dependable, he is unable to defend himself, and becomes hopelessly withdrawn and distressed. Edith and Jill are forced into an uneasy alliance to help him overcome what is effectively a mental breakdown.
Posted by Christina at 3:53 PM. Category: Books of the Month
