Mitchell & Markby 13

This book refers back to a previous death of an Oakley family member in 1889. Cora Oakley was found burned to death in her bedchamber. Her husband William was charged with murder since many felt that he had poisoned her with arsenic fumes which caused her to knock over the lamp and start the fire. William was acquitted and left the country, leaving a young son behind him. Descendents of that son are now living in the family home. A stranger comes to town saying he's a descendent of Cora's husband. This puts the elderly Oakley sisters in a quandary and upsets everyone in the village of Bamford. When a present-day murder occurs. Alan Markby and Meredith Mitchell are on the case. Alan, although a Superintendent, has been side-lined for this investigation because he is too close to the principals in this case, so he works from the sidelines with Meredith trying to uncover some long-buried family secrets. Ann Granger does a wonderful job of the English village mystery and her two sleuths are two of my favourites. Meredith and Alan's personal relationship always adds some interest to the mystery. ( )

The book was very light on police procedure. Accepting that Markby would be allowed anywhere near a murder in which he had direct contact with all of the suspects, even living with one of them; because such stretches are sometimes necessary for a crime novel, the police seemed to operate upon a Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot approach whereby the little grey cells were all and finger prints, etc. were non existent.

I would have forgiven this, but a good whodunnit should have a twist: this one did not. After a very long build up - over 150 pages before the murder is committed, the book proceeded quite well, until the end. I would have liked some of the frightfully upper class villagers to get their comeuppance but the green wellie brigade came out on top; even though one of their number was a murderer. The complex series of events that lead to Jan Oakley's demise were unconvincing and left me feeling a little cheated.

The writing style was good and the 400 pages slipped by without effort. This is one of a series of 'Mitchell and Markby' books and I may well try another because this has the air of being out of kilter with said collection: Markby is very much a secondary character, having been somewhat sidelined by the pedestrian Minchin (due to Markby's connection to the case) and Meredith Mitchell is relegated to a point even further towards the edge of the picture. I am guessing that this might be a rogue offering - the one that didn't quite work. ( )

This book was an excellent read. There are two murders in the Shade family, a hundred years apart. You switch back and forth between the two times getting information from both murders. It was well written with both times separate and yet parallel. ( )

Engelse Detective met inspecteur Markby en zijn vriendin Meredith.

Twee oude zusters die samen in een vervallen landhuis wonen zijn de kleindochters van een vermoedelijke moordenaar die indertijd niet veroordeeld werd voor de moord op zijn vrouw. De vermoedelijke moordenaar is uit het Engelse dorpje vertrokken en blijkt in Polen te zijn hertrouwd. De kleinzoon komt op bezoek, er wordt een moord gepleegd en Markby moet uitzoeken wat er gebeurd is.

Het boek is geschreven met de Engelse voorliefde voor details, gecombineerd met de Engelse voorliefde om niet teveel zaken te benoemen. Een herkenbare beschrijving van de kleine Engelse dorpjes en de gesloten bevolking, mooi om te lezen maar het duurt iets te lang om me helemaal te kunnen pakken. Ik ben een wat ongeduldig type…