Veronica Stallwood

Novelist and one-time librarian, Kate Ivory, has been asked to do some cataloguing at the Bodleian Library, Oxford in an undercover effort to find out how to make rare books disappear when they are in the process of being added to the computer catalogue and removed from the card index. Not only did she discover major losses and what became of the books, but someone else had the same suspicion and came to a nasty end. The book theft is referred to as the Oxford Exit. This was a lot of fun, not a cozy, but kept light with Stallwood's humour and library lore. And of course the setting is first-rate.

Most noteworthy: a particularly creepy character has the name of Vivian.… (mehr)

Veronica Stallwood, Death and the Oxford Box, Headline, 1993, 4th printing, Paperback. I came across some signed copies of Smallwood books in a charity shop and started reading Death and the Oxford Box. Stallwood sets her crimes in and around Oxford and her books are in the cosy crime category. The author worked for a while in the Bodleian Library. The Fridesley Ladies Running Group is trying to help weak and feeble Rose get some Oxford mourning trinkets back from Theo, her husband, who has left her to live with another woman. The treasures were intended to be a wedding gift but Granny seems to want them back but Theo resists and Rose is in some kind of financial difficulty. In terms of big dippers the novel is Gullivers World compared with Alton Tower and somewhat lightweight. After about 50 pages, I changed my opinion about Death and the Oxford Box. Gradually the Fridesley runners became realistic both actively involved in helping a minor crime to take place and as a victim or perpetrator of one of their number. Yvonne was the victim. Having worked and lived in Oxford, I recognized the characters and the way they behaved, what they wore and their attitudes. Everyone looked up to Kate Ivory, the ‘sleuth’ and writer who could find no time to write her own book. Middle aged she is crying out for a partner and has two male choices, Andrew who works in the Bodleian is boring and Liam, an academic with its own responsibilities and aloofness. Oxford life, university and landscape ring true but not as well as Barbara Pym. Too busy to write her book Kate devotes her time to identify and find the murderer, while secretly wishing for an exciting lover. She knows that solving crimes will always come first. I may have a go at another Stallwood Oxford slow-paced thriller.… (mehr)

I had enjoyed Veronica Stallwood’s previous novels featuring aspiring historical novelist Kate Ivory, who had an unfortunate penchant for becoming embroiled in murder investigations. I wonder, however, whether this fourth instalment represented a case of having taken the pitcher to the well once too often. I acknowledge, however, that it may simply have been that I have read too many books in this sequence within too short a period.

This time around, an impecunious Kate finds herself being taken on by Bartlemas College, to help with the administration of its summer school following the untimely death of the man in charge of the project. He had died after falling from the high college tower, as it happens, only very shortly after encountering Kate herself in a busy Oxford street. As Kate gets to grips with the work, she starts to find a few oddities in the files, and also begins to receive rather threatening messages.

So far, so good. However, each chapter begins with an encounter between Kate’s deceased predecessor and an angel, who is overseeing the dead man’s access to heaven. This is basically a rather clumsy vehicle for insights into episodes from the dead man’s past. I found this exceptionally irritating, and out of step with the rest of the novel.

Kate remains an appealing and broadly empathetic character, but I think I will wait much longer before progressing to the next book in the series.… (mehr)