Customer Reviews

Aiding and Abetting

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

The high-brow farce of "Aiding and Abetting" revolves around two drawn-from-real-life criminals who both have "blood on their hands." The first, Lord "Lucky" Lucan, who intended to murder his wife but mistakenly killed his children's nanny, disappeared in 1974 and hasn't been seen since. The second is Beate Pappenheim/Hildegard Wolf, a fraudulent stigmatic and faith healer who bamboozled her followers before escaping with a fortune.

But, to complicate matters even further, Spark adds a third impostor: a former butler who looks so much like Lucan ("They were not indistinquishable, but they might have been brothers.") that the two work in league to thwart either's capture. The comedy results when Spark brings together her three characters: a fraud who reenters the "real" world by assuming a new identity, a murderer who flees to the underworld by assuming a fake identity, and a butler who straddles both worlds by assuming the identity of a killer pretending not to be a killer. Each of the three becomes dependent on the other two for survival, and an uneasy detente results because the exposure of any of them would likely result in the exposure of all three.

Since authorities suspected that Lucan's escape was enabled by his aristocratic peers, the author adds further irony depicting an upper class who protects a murderer because it's the "proper" thing to do: "They seemed to have been faithful in the class-conscious sense." No doubt it's hard for modern (especially young) readers to imagine that, only thirty years ago, upper-class snobbishness extended even to assisting a homicidal maniac. British aristocrats "are not the same people as [they] were a quarter of a century ago . . . Since Lucan's day, snobs have been greatly emarginated." Spark is ridiculing both British aristocracy and their hankering for the "good old days"; it is this theme in particular that recalls the early satires of Evelyn Waugh.

The novel's hasty ending likewise reminds the reader of Waugh's "A Handful of Dust"; it is somewhat unsatisfying, not the least because the perspective shifts unexpectedly during the final pages. Still, although a slim, brisk read (barely a novella, in fact), "Aiding and Abetting" hits many of its upper-crust targets while simultaneously mocking the meaning of identity.

Twenty-five years after the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett, two Lord Lucans consult Parisian psychiatrist Dr. Hildegard Wolf. The anniversary is also the catalyst for a new investigation into Lucan's disappearance, conducted by the daughter of one of Lucan's former friends. Hildegard is initially shocked by having to treat two Lucans, but then takes it in her stride. One of the Lucans, obviously, has to be fake, but which one? However, both Lucans know about Hildegard's subversive past, and have got a hold on her, forcing her to flee. If it's one thing Lucan knows well, it's how to run...

Resumes of this novel can't help but sound fantastic and more than a little distasteful. After all, those who suffered from Lucan's crime are still living. However, the disappearance of Lucan remains as enigmatic today as it ever was. The rumours of what happened to him, and what actually happened on the night he killed Sandra Rivett are numerous. All these are discussed in Spark's novel, although the common belief amongst Lucan's former friends that he must have killed himself is arbitrarily dismissed. The question is how could such a dull man ever have evaded capture for so long? One of the most improbable stories about Lucan, printed in the Guardian at the time of the murder, was that he was once considered for the film role of James Bond.

It seems that Muriel Spark has borrowed the name of Robert Walker (the alias of one of the Lucans), from Hitchcock's film 'Strangers on a Train'. This fits her story since both Lucans are presumed to be in collusion with one another for some reason. In Hitchcock's film, Robert Walker kills Farley Granger's wife, and then blackmails Granger to murder his business tycoon father. Both Lucans blackmail Hildegard about her shady past. I couldn't find any reference to the fake stigmatic Spark based this part of her story upon, but there is another stigmatic of Bavaria in history, who was called Teresa Neumann. All in all, the magic of Spark's prose and characterisation draws you in. The only moment that you may have trouble trying to believe is when the young Lacey and the aged Joseph Murray fall in love when searching for Lucan. Maybe this will draw the attentions of Hollywood to this novel! This intriguing story is composed in a tasteful, elegant way, and there are moments when you can't help but burst into laughter, such is Muriel Spark's great wit. I haven't given this novella full marks though, because it does have quite limited ambitions. I think it could also have gone straight into paperback - it doesn't seem good value at a hardcover price.

A vividly imagined tale of what might have been had the infamous Lucky Lucan (wanted for murder) come to Paris with his body double, settled in for overpriced psychotherapy with a former fake stigmatic and ultimately ended up sealing his fate in a most unexpected (and unbelievable) way. Although clever in places, witty in spots, I found this book a quick read primarily because I wanted to be finished with it quickly. The characters were brittle and unsympathetic. The scenes artificial. The book flowed like a swift stream, confident even cocky in places, but lacking the kind of depth that makes you want to dive in and swim.

I have long been a fan of Muriel Spark's, truly enjoying her humor and style. I liked her autobiography as well. But this book is a great disappointment. The characters are shallow: in particular, Dr. Wolf is cardboard and scarcely believable. There is a certain sense of haste: events are barely sketched, and it is all quickly brought to a conclusion, without going into any detail. A very thin book indeed, which would probably have received much less attention if the author did not have such a reputation.

Everything in *Aiding and Abetting* is doubled--the characters, the plot lines, the language, even the title. And this division runs through the book and gives it a strangely opaque equipoise in the midst of its frenetically jammed incidents and its plethora of characters. All this in 166 pages! The tone is moral, but the perspective from which judgments should emanate is not immediately apparent, though we are presented with villains and rogues aplenty. The result is a breathless and giddy novel, like many of her others. How much pleasure this affords you I suppose is a matter of personal taste, but I loved every balanced sentence of it, and I found its deadpan hilarity so captivating that my immediate reaction on finish it the first time was to start it again. Muriel Spark is inimitable; this is one of her best.

Muriel Spark's new novel interweaves the story of Lord Lucan, a dissolute English Earl who murdered his children's nanny and tried to kill his wife in 1974, then disappeared, with the story of Hildegard Wolf, a psychiatrist with an unconventional method of treating patients and a secret past of her own.

Rumours of Lord Lucan's whereabouts continue to pop up: noone knows if he is still alive or not. In this book, Spark has two separate "Lord Lucan"'s visit Dr. Wolf for treatment. Before long Wolf is wondering how much they know about her, how much they know about each other, and which if either of them is the real Lord Lucan. Several other people are drawn into the search for Lord Lucan, including an old friend of his, and the daughter of another old friend of his, and Hildegard's long-time lover. The resolution is amusing and unexpected.

Spark considers the complicity of accomplices in crime, and the morality of the "upper classes", and the persistence of guilt. Her writing is as always extremely clever -- dare I say it sparkles? -- and the book is slantingly funny and morally insistent and a thoroughgoing joy to read. At 82, Muriel Spark remains a truly brilliant writer. (Like another reviewer, I can't quite bring myself to rate this 5 stars -- but only because the book is so short. It's better than the average 4 star book, at any rate.)

This book by Ms. Muriel Spark, "Aiding And Abetting", deals with a crime committed in 1974 and a perpetrator that is known, but still unaccounted for. The crime itself is true and the book is a study of what might have or could have happened in the last 27 years. It is entirely possible that the criminal could read this book, as he would be only 66 years old at the time of publication.

Having no prior knowledge with the event it was difficult to be absorbed in the actual crime. For those who remember it I would imagine the experience of reading this book would be all the more interesting. I enjoyed it, but had I been acquainted with the event before, I believe I would have enjoyed it more. I imagine that many of the players in the book represented real or referred to persons presumed to be involved, but again not knowing the original players and their involvement this aspect was not readily apparent. The Author also chose to run a parallel story about another criminal, which seemed to make the events even more improbable. This is a very brief book and the number of characters was a bit overwhelming.

What is very clear is the condemnation the Author continually points out about the supposed privileged persons of England, and their absurd sense of their self and their place in the world. This is not tabloid nonsense rather a very biting commentary on how this man most likely was able to flee the scene, and how to this day he is seen as something other than a person who should be hung until quite dead. Even the next generation who affects being appalled at their previous generation's behavior really is in search of an interview with the criminal and not an arrest. Ms. Spark takes this to every level of the upper classes and involves the Church as well. These persons who act as though they live in the 18th Century is morbidly demonstrated by their suggesting the lower classes are likely to bleed more than their aristocratic counterparts.

The suggested story is brought to an end that is a bit too neat and predictable. It is a sort of, turnabout is fair play, event and was not as satisfying as I wished it were. The book is well written by a woman who is in the 9th decade of her life and is still producing quality work far above most contemporary writers.

Muriel Sparks' latest novel "Aiding & Abetting" doesn't take up much shelf space but sure proves the adage that less may be more ! This psychological thriller, based on the unsolved Lord Lucan murder mystery, is so cleverly constructed and seamlessly meshed with the subject of another true story - that of the fake stigmatic Beate Pappenheim - I found myself unable to stop until I finished it in one sitting. Sparks' ingenious plotting is once again evident in the way the pulsating narrative takes unexpected twists and turns that keeps you in total suspense with the unyielding promise of a surprise ending. I felt my heart thumping and my mind racing just watching the two Lucans and Hildegarde and their aiders connive and plot to outwit each other. The novel may have taken class as its starting point but it is blood that binds their fate. Nobody writes like Sparks these days. Her dry wit and rare economy with words make for an eloquence that is both unique and unparalleled. It is also a hallmark of great writing. "Aiding & Abetting" may be her best work in recent times. This slim novel sure packs a wallop. It comes highly recommended.

25 years after the seventh Earl of Lucan clobbered his wife and killed the nanny, he shows up in Paris at the office of psychiatrist Dr. Hildegard Wolf. But she already has a patient who claims to be Lord Lucan. Will the real one please prove it? And what about Hildegard, who really is Beate Pappenheim, a fugitive fake stigmatic from Bavaria? The author has great fun twisting things around between these three bad people, at times coming close to the Keystone Cops. But blood will tell, with murder, with stigmata and with the British nobility. This book does not make much sense, but it is good fluffy fun.

Amusing sideline: Bavaria had a well-known stigmatic - Therese von Konnersreuth - who "practised" there from 1925 until her death in the 1960s. She was never accused of fraud but, to this day, Rome is rather sceptical.