Review
Another of Penn's straightforward, slightly plodding English village traditionals set in the Cotswolds, where Detective Superintendent George Thorne and his reliable Sergeant Abbot (A Will to Kilt, etc.) are alerted - late in the game - by Thorne's police surgeon friend Dick Band to the possibility of murder in the town of Columbury. Band had been called in when elderly, arthritic Muriel Fayne was pulled out of her lily pond by nice but nerdy pastor Timothy Merle. Her death was pronounced an accident, a verdict that left Band a little uneasy. Now Muriel's clever, homely daughter Helen has died, after a series of seeming accidents, in a fatal car crash, also called accidental. Band is convinced that something is amiss, and Thorne gets permission to carry out a discreet investigation. It turns out that Helen had lived with her mother at South Winds - a house coveted by neighboring bigwig Reginald Clutton-Grey and his pushy second wife, Kathleen, as well as by Helen's sister Susan and her teacher husband Andrew. Biddy, another sister, is married to Helen's lackluster partner Paul Drayton. He now becomes sole owner of Drayton Galleries - the success of which is almost entirely the product of Helen's expertise and hard work. Paul's self-indulgent son Peter will also benefit, in a small way, from Helen's death, and Reverend Merle expects a substantial gift for his beleaguered church. In short, there were lots of mercenary reasons for wanting Helen dead, but a motive that surfaces well into the investigation has little to do with money. There's a thwarted try at another murder, as well as an attempted suicide, before Thorne comes up with a solidly reasoned scenario that pinpoints the killer. Quietly absorbing, comfortable fare for lovers of the genre. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
