Aiding and Abetting & The Go-Away Bird [Import] [Hardcover]

Muriel Spark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: QPD; First Edition edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670894281
• ISBN-13: 978-0670894284
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,333,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wry satire of the true-crime genre and of the aristocracy., September 29, 2005

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Aiding and Abetting (Paperback)

This is a real treat to read, with a wonderfully appropriate grand finale which depends on surprise! A unique and suspenseful twist on the traditional murder mystery, this novel is based on the real-life character of Lord Lucan, who in 1974 killed his children's nanny by mistake instead of killing his wife. Though he vanished and has never been found, many have suspected that he has been housed and hidden over the years by a series of aristocratic friends.

In this satiric approach to the true-crime genre, Spark gives us wacky, off-the-wall characters--including two men who claim to be the "real" Lord Lucan. Adding to the dramatic mix are variety of aristocratic "aiders and abettors" who have protected and financially supported Lucan for twenty-five years, a psychiatrist who was once a phony stigmatic but who is now treating both "Lord Lucans," and several former acquaintances who now want Lucan caught, not because they believe that murder is wrong, but because times have changed--"Lucky Lucan failed to show up [for questioning], which was really lowering our standards....he was a very great bore."

Satiric and mordantly critical of aristocratic pretension, this is vintage Spark. Her plotting is tight, with no loose ends and no digressions, and her selection of details is exquisitely careful and controlled. Her themes and motifs, especially those of blood as it relates to both crime and breeding, are so intricately connected to all the characters and the plot, that it is difficult to discuss them without giving away the clever plot twists. And Spark does all this in less than two hundred pages. It is impossible not to read this at a gallop to find out what happens--while smiling the whole time at Spark's wry wit. Mary Whipple