Customer Reviews

The Accomplice (Felony and Mayhem Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this book a Latvian refugee from WWII nears the end of her life. She is the descendant of an aristocratic family, and has led two lives. The first life ends as the war ends and she meets her husband to be. He is a British doctor attending to the refugees in Berlin. Her next life is spent in comfort and security in a Sussex village. In 1990, after the Iron Curtain has fallen, she sends a package of clothing off to Moscow and events are initiated which cause her to revisit her early life, one that she kept secret. As the tale unfolds she begins to see herself in a young Russian girl who has come to spend the summer. This book is a mystery, and a novel. There are three significant murders, but this book feels more like a novel. The story is packed with historical detail and alternates between the past and present. I loved Elizabeth Ironside's "Death in the Garden" and this book did not disappoint.

Here is a completely fantastic story involving fleeing aristocrats, an unlikely vamp, an even more unlikely murderess, and you find yourself yielding to it with utter willingness. I just finished the book, and the really odd thing is how it wants to continue in your own mind. You feel sure you know what's likely to happen next, who will fall in love with whom, what will happen to the culprit, how justice will be served, without the author having to finish the story. And you're completely satisfied. A powerful piece of writing.

In Broad Woodham, England under the roses of Asshe House, as elderly Jean Loftus after four plus decades living there moves out so her stepson and his family can move in, the bony remains of a child are found by workers. Detective Superintendent Stevens assumes the bones belong to a young boy who vanished without a trace three decades ago. Jean wonders if the connection goes further east to her homeland Soviet Russia where she was born Yevgenia Konstantinovna Chornorouskya, but decides to do nothing except move on.

However, a Russian teenager Xenia has brought back other unpleasant memories of her fatherland that Yevgenia would prefer to forget. Her best friend, attorney Zita Daunsey tries to help Jean cope though not understanding of what, but also decides to investigate what happened to the dead child as well as her pal's mysterious past; that is she makes inquiries in between attending tea parties and caring for her disabled son Tom with the help of "nurse" Lynne.

This is as much a garden tea party as a mystery. THE ACCOMPLICE is an odd somewhat fascinating English cozy that draws readers into the storyline. The more appealing character is Zita, whose life is tediously filled with responsibility as all revolves around Tom so a wee mystery adds spice though she seems to know more than she lets on. Readers will skip the tea segues, but want to learn more about just who Jean is, why she hid her identity four decades ago and how does the deceased child tie back to her in this English modern manners mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I see everybody here gave this 5 stars. You can disagree with me but I really did not like this book, especially when compared with Death in the Garden. I felt the author added a lot of unnecessary confusion, and seemed unable to decide whether she was writing a saga of the Russian nobility from the twilight of the Romanov empire to the present or a murder mystery. There is very little murder and mystery and by page 200 you've got nothing but someone's remains found in the garden. It's not even established that a crime was committed, and the eventual outcome is downright lame. I dont know where the author came up with the Russian idea, whether it is her own background or she made it up, but Dr. Zhivago this isn't. She has a lot of characters that don't further the story, and the family relationships are unnecessarily complex (stepchildren of stepchildren?).

An example of confusing, as well as making a big deal out of what turns out to be insignificant is the background of Al, the boyfriend of the main character's step-daughter-in-law's stepdaughter. At the start of the book, she refers to him as black. While this was originally published in the UK, to most American readers, this would indicate a person of African ancestry. Later, she tells us Al is Indian. That is Asian, not African. After that, Al tells Xenia he is Muslim and may be Pakistani. Pakistan was once part of India in the colonial days, but not for some time now. Near the end of the book, she refers to him having pale skin. The only point of all this is to show that Xenia, a Russian, has strong racial prejudices and would consider marriage to a non-Caucasian man to be less desirable. I think it should have been left out.

Most of the book dwells in the past, sometimes going back 200 years. A mystery (as this is marketed) should be tightly written with a plot that moves and clues for the reader. I got tired of this book long before the middle and I was very disappointed in the ending, which I won't reveal.

This book is a complex English mystery that ends surprisingly. I enjoyed it immensely, as did a fellow traveler to Alaska who sat in the deck chair next to me.

If you are perusing the mystery genre for bed-timing reading...this is not your book. If, however, you have high standards for elegant, highly intelligent, poignant, truth-shattering prose that reaches into your very soul...you will adore this unforgettable novel. Indeed, there is a reason why Elizabeth Ironside's used books are off-the-charts in pricing among her first editions. It is not because she is ho-hum like so many others in this genre. She is a stand-alone - a completely unique and brilliant author, for whom I shall search again, and again, looking forward to each book I can find knowing that at book's end I will be more knowledgable about the world in which I live; as well as more true to myself. Her novels, and this one especially, are that powerful.

Such a good book, one that you hate to see end. It's not your run of the mill kind of murder mysteries and so well written you feel like you know the characters so well.

... I actually prefer this one to DEATH IN THE GARDEN. DITG got unwieldy and tiresome; this one, OTOH, I could not put down. True, I tend to skim a bit in Ironside's works, which I normally would not do. (Her descriptions can get loooong); but I found Zita absorbing, even her "European" (as another reviewer wrote) love for shoes. I also found Xenia totally repugnant, yet still had to read about her doings and motivations. Actually, the most repellent character to me would end up being a tie between Stevens and Valentina! (Gack! "Suede" skin on his bald head? I am revolted yet fascinated by that. His obsessions are dangerous, and he is just boorish.)(Valentina is so self-concerned it is almost incredible, and yet, don't we all know people like that?)

If you enjoyed Death in the Garden, do not read this book, as you will be sorely disappointed. Whereas Ironside's first novel was well crafted, her characters interesting and her story gripping, this reads like a very rough draft of a fairly poorly thought through plot.

Again, Ironside develops a contemporary protagonist and story, intertwined with a second character's reminiscence of the past, but here the modern story is told in such a lazy fashion that you neither believe in the characters (or care for any of them) or the plot, which has such obvious twists as to be laughable. The older storyline, told through an old woman's reminiscences, is also heavily signposted, but quite engaging at times, but it cannot carry its bloated contemporary counterpart.

The most disappointing thing is that Ironside does not develop the protagonist, rather she relies on clunky, convenient cliches -- the character repeatedly talks about her expensive shoes and clothes and the food she is cooking-- wow, she must be European!

I couldn't finish this book. I put it down several times before I gave up completely. The dead body was irrelevant, the protagonist uninteresting, and the cloud of Russian suspense heavy-handed and cliched. I would also argue that Ironside made the relationships too artificially complex yet superficial for readers to care. This novel was a deep disappointment compared to the wonderful DEATH IN THE GARDEN.