Bøger af E. X. Ferrars

It's awful: dear old Malcolm Creed, one of Virginia Freer's favorite neighbors, has been killed in a hit-and-run. Even worse, Malcolm's wife (er...widow) was in hospital at the time, so her homecoming is going to be a misery. Aside from the expected grief, she'll need lots of help with meals and so forth, so you'd think it would be a blessing that Felix--Virginia's on-again/off-again husband--is on hand, paying one of his occasional visits. But a Felix Visitation is never an unalloyed blessing: he has what one reviewer called "a dishonest relationship with the truth," and also a positive genius for seeing conspiracy and murderous intent in what looks to the ordinary person like a tragic but garden-variety accident. Of course, he also has a remarkable knack for being right about this and for picking out the bad guys. So one shouldn't grouse about Felix too much. Not too much.

Murder and Felix have the habit of turning up--and turning up together--in Virginia Freer's life, like some macabre set of twinned bad pennies. This time around, a broken leg and the resulting need for soothing ministrations have led Felix to take up residence in Virginia's spare bedroom, giving him a front-row seat to the dramatic doings in the neighborhood.These mostly involve Virginia's friend Ann Brightwell, who has simultaneously come into a legacy and offered a home to a suddenly orphaned young cousin. The excitement only ratchets up when the cousin disappears and a ransom is demanded. Ann is prepared to sell her newly valuable goodies if it will bring her back, but Felix, cynic that he is, isn't sure that's the wisest course of action. He points out, among other things, that the cousin has a history with the police, and that a local mystery writer seems to be taking a curiously keen interest in the whereabouts of this...quite nubile young woman he's only barely met.

Those plans for peaceful seaside holidays? They never really work out well, at least not in the world of classic British mysteries. Retired professor Andrew Basnett, for example, envisioning little more than sandcastles and the blessings of a pale English sun on his pale English skin, is startled to meet his nephew, Peter, on the beach. He's yet more startled (and not entirely thrilled) when Peter gets him invited to dinner with a celebrity novelist. And he's extremely startled when the novelist's sister-in-law is shot in the summer house and nephew Peter seems the likeliest man for the job. We have often suggested that Andrew Basnett should be known as "Mr. Marple," because the series' village settings and pinpoint plotting--and its canny, creaky sleuth--are so pleasingly reminiscent of the tales of St. Mary Mead. But they feature, in addition, a gentle wit that (dare we say it?) Ms. Christie could only dream about, and this final installment is a perfect exemplar.

The irresistible Andrew Basnett series may have been written in the 1980s and '90s, but its soul lies with the classic crime fiction of the 1930s.Here, for example, is A Hobby of Murder, with its setting at--wait for it--a classic country-house party, that staple of the Golden Age. Rounding out the guest list are, among others, a mystery writer, a lawyer with a reason to dislike him, a doctor, a retired teacher with a passion for photography, and the lord of the local manor, keen amateur chef Sam Waldron--so keen that he has recreated an 18th-century dinner. His skills may not match his ambition, but he didn't mean to poison the coffee. Oh no? The local police inspector isn't so sure, but in the finest Golden Age tradition he's rather an idiot. When the bodies start piling up, it's a good thing that Basnett is on hand to sort things out!

Ah, it's an academic conference, with all the egos, the scandals, the terrifyingly petty squabbles on display. Well....perhaps not so petty. Professor Andrew Basnett has returned to his old university for a meeting of the Botanical Association, an event that should be entirely benign, except that he can't help being just a little curious about Carl Judd, an artist who was murdered here just two years ago. And, of course, about Stephen Sharland, who's in prison for the murder, only no one thinks he did it, not even Judd's widow.The rumors are flying, the tongues are wagging, and then the only witness to the crime? He gets murdered, too! It's all too exciting--no, sorry, too terrible, too terrible for words. Thank heavens Andrew Basnett is on hand to weed out the gossip and dig for the taproot of truth.

"Virginia Freer's elderly friend has died, the will seems to have prompted both theft and murder, and the situation is further complicated when Virginia's cad of a husband reappears"--

"A Felony & Mayhem mystery"--Title page verso.

If Andrew Basnett were a savvy mystery reader rather than a retired professor of botany, he would know that an invitation to spend Easter weekend at the Berkshire estate of a wealthy distant relative always involves at least one murder. This one delivers a death threat, an imminent disinheritance, a theft, and two corpses--good thing the quiet professor is around to suss out the family's secrets.

Professor of botany Andrew Basnett is looking forward to retirement and to settling into the little village where he's borrowed a cottage while his flat in town is renovated. It sounds bucolic, even if the village murderess lives right up the road. But the case never came to trial, says Basnett's nephew, lender of the cottage: She had the perfect alibi. Not entirely comforted, Basnett is more unnerved when a blizzard knocks out the power and provides a dark, snowy night just like the one six years ago when someone shot Charles Hewison through the head. It doesn't help that there's been another murder and that Pauline Hewison, once again, has motive to spare.

"Virginia and Felix ferret out the links between two apparently unconnected murders, revealing some unpleasant secrets about their neighbors"--

"Ex-odd-couple Virginia and Felix agree to be witnesses at a wedding that turns into an investigation when the groom's father is murdered"--