No one is screaming because nothing happens in this tepid mystery that goes nowhere, and slowly peters out. I can see no reason for this title.
Previous editions of this book feature a woman and a cat relaxing fireside, a more accurate depiction. For unknown reasons, my copy shows a lone cabin in the woods, so naturally this mystery takes place at a large manor house outside Oxfordshire.
Loretta lectures at London University, and feels her sore throat is a mild case of glandular fever. A friend gets her an invitation to stay at a guest house on the rambling property owned by the painter Clara Wolstonecroft while she recuperates. There is a US airbase next to the property and when disruptors are banned from camping out in protest of Reagan's air strikes in Libya, Clara allows the peace camp to move onto her land. One of the objectors is a young woman fleeing an abusive husband, others the press have branded as radical feminists, or even worse, lesbians. Vandals have attacked the camp, ransacked the guest cottage, Clara has received threatening letters, and someone has thrown red paint at the front door. The local resident's association is against her, as is the local Conservative MP Colin Kendall-Cole, one of her old friends.
A dinner party introduces a couple named Barker-Parker, a pensioner Gilbert, Clara's ex-husband Jeremy, and Robert, a composer who seems very nice. Soon Robert is cooking her dinner in his cottage; Schubert and red wine, a very nice gougere, with monkfish and a sleepover to follow. ("It was as if part of her that had been dry and still as a leafless branch had suddenly felt the first intimation of spring".)
Finally, there is murder, as Loretta finds Clara shot, in her Liberty print dress, in the drawing room. The police naturally involve Loretta in the investigation. With all the characters, you would think red herrings abound. But no. They are all pretty much forgotten.
A murderer is found, an explanation out of the blue never mentioned previously in the story, and an abrupt finale that will leave readers unsatisfied.
As Publisher's Weekly put it: "the story's resolution is certain to disenchant many readers...yet, after finishing such an unsatisfactory mystery few will care."
This is number two in the series of five Loretta Lawson mysteries written between 1987 and 1995. Loretta references her previous discovery of dead bodies and resulting detection ("You know what happened last time!"), so it seems this is "Murder She Wrote" style. Again, her un-divorced ex-husband is her sidekick.
Readers looking for a spunky heroine would do better elsewhere, and even fans of the series were let down by the non-ending. This I found really weak.
1988 / Tradeback / 237 pages
Comments