Not the worst Golden Age mystery I managed to slog through (that distinction is reserved for The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes), but close, at least until the last fifth when the murder plot unfolds in great detail.
After a three page introduction to the characters, setting up the deaths involved, we are subjected to 140 pages written by a Miss Coppock, one of the women working at the girls' school, of which victim #1 was head mistress. (This is not a spoiler since we are told early on who the victim(s) are.) All these writings come 10 years after the incidents described.
This first narrator comes across (probably purposefully) as a not-too-bright priggish moral twit who goes on and on about things. I kept at it, thinking somewhere in there must be clues to solve the mystery (alas, not).
The woman herself concludes chapters with statements such as: "Well, I never intended to record the tittle-tattle of the Common Room and I really must get on with my story" and "Well, I never meant to start telling you all about Aunt Bertha in this manner" and "There I go again â prattling about school affairs instead of getting on with my story." The prattling lasts for many, many pages. But I don't mean to copy out all her ramblings, so let me get on with my review.
After plowing through Miss Coppock's narrative (if ever there was a cure for insomnia...), a man who has knowledge of the next death takes over, and he is not exactly laconic in his writings either. He needlessly details his drive from Scotland to the hotel where death #2 occurs. (How nice he didn't run over the "sleepy ewe and her lambs" in the road.)
His part of the story hints broadly at the solution to the murders, and lulls you into believing it. But is it that simple?
The last person to take up the tale unravels things for the reader (and the police), and her part saves the whole book from being a total write-off. Plus she doesn't wander off into irrelevant side trips, but sticks to the point (even though she, like most of the characters isn't someone you might like to be around much, especially since the poor woman has had to face life with only four servants after her husband's death.)
The twist is a clever one, but the book could have been shortened by removing so much of the blathering by various narrators.
After a three page introduction to the characters, setting up the deaths involved, we are subjected to 140 pages written by a Miss Coppock, one of the women working at the girls' school, of which victim #1 was head mistress. (This is not a spoiler since we are told early on who the victim(s) are.) All these writings come 10 years after the incidents described.
This first narrator comes across (probably purposefully) as a not-too-bright priggish moral twit who goes on and on about things. I kept at it, thinking somewhere in there must be clues to solve the mystery (alas, not).
The woman herself concludes chapters with statements such as: "Well, I never intended to record the tittle-tattle of the Common Room and I really must get on with my story" and "Well, I never meant to start telling you all about Aunt Bertha in this manner" and "There I go again â prattling about school affairs instead of getting on with my story." The prattling lasts for many, many pages. But I don't mean to copy out all her ramblings, so let me get on with my review.
After plowing through Miss Coppock's narrative (if ever there was a cure for insomnia...), a man who has knowledge of the next death takes over, and he is not exactly laconic in his writings either. He needlessly details his drive from Scotland to the hotel where death #2 occurs. (How nice he didn't run over the "sleepy ewe and her lambs" in the road.)
His part of the story hints broadly at the solution to the murders, and lulls you into believing it. But is it that simple?
The last person to take up the tale unravels things for the reader (and the police), and her part saves the whole book from being a total write-off. Plus she doesn't wander off into irrelevant side trips, but sticks to the point (even though she, like most of the characters isn't someone you might like to be around much, especially since the poor woman has had to face life with only four servants after her husband's death.)
The twist is a clever one, but the book could have been shortened by removing so much of the blathering by various narrators.
