Assassins at Ospreys [Paperback]

R.T. Raichev (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Mystery writer Antonia Darcy and her husband Major Hugh Payne visit a boring fan's estate only to find that she is more sinister than dull, and they end up having to foil a planned murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Raichev's stylish third novel to feature mystery writer Antonia Darcy and her husband, Maj. Hugh Payne (after 2007's The Death of Corrine), the couple attend a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye. There they reluctantly befriend two unusual women—a femme fatale in a wheelchair, Beatrice Bee Ardleigh, and Bee's austere companion, Ingrid Delmar—whom Hugh dubs Goldilocks and Cerberus. A few months later, Antonia and Hugh accept Bee's invitation to come see her in Oxfordshire, where Bee has just made a controversial marriage and Ingrid has been impersonating Bee on visits to a dying neighbor who plans to leave his home, Ospreys (The secret house of death they used to call it), to the National Trust. The twisty plot thickens with the murder of a shady, Chartreuse-drinking priest at Ospreys. Deft use of literary allusion and well-drawn if unsubtle characterization are among the strengths of this traditional whodunit. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In a pleasing third outing, crime writer Antonia Darcy and her husband, Major Hugh Payne, attract the attentions of Bee, a rather strange but charming woman, at an author signing. In this smart and clever mystery, Antonia and Hugh are reluctantly drawn into the intrigues of Bee, her new husband, Lem, and her former caretaker Ingrid; their curiosity is piqued when Bee receives a letter from an old flame recently returned from America and dying in the nearby Ospreys house. Real life begins to resemble one of Antonia’s mysteries as first Ingrid (who was disguised as Bee) and then a priest (with an opium obsession) go missing. With plenty of literary references and witty remarks, this will appeal to readers who like their cozies on the intellectual side. The English country setting, moderate pace, and well-described characters could just as easily be in the nineteenth as the twenty-first century and will appeal to series fans and newcomers alike. --Jessica Moyer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Soho Constable; Reprint edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569475776
• ISBN-13: 978-1569475775
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The highly entertaining mystery of "the maids," or, as Hugh dubs them: Goldilocks and Cerberus, March 30, 2008

By 

K. M. "literary devotee" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Assassins at Ospreys (Country House Crime) (Paperback)

ASSASSINS AT OSPREYS is nearly on par with THE HUNT FOR SONYA DUFRETTE and a bit higher than THE DEATH OF CORINNE on my enjoyment meter. I really admire R. T. Raichev's ability to tell an unpredictable suspense tale. He succeeds beautifully here in crafting pottily eccentric characters whose circumstances and personalities fatefully corner them. ASSASSINS ingeniously manages a host of details -- one can think of the author as having scored and conducted a symphony, making sure all the "instruments" (characters) had their own parts to play and yet blending them into a rigorous set of movements.

In this outing, Antonia meets "the maids," at one of her book signings: long term companions who "appealed to her sense of anomaly. They stimulated her Gothic imagination." The wheelchair-bound, talkative Beatrice chats like a magpie while the taciturn Ingrid repeatedly says it is time to go. Beatrice (Bee) boldly predicts to her favorite author: " 'Shall I tell you what I think? I think you are going to put us in your next book,' " and asks Antonia to visit them at their home, Millbrook House. Months later Hugh and Antonia take up that invitation and discover that Bee still shares her house with Ingrid but has also become ambulatory and a newlywed. Hugh nicknames the ladies, Goldilocks and Cerberus, respectively -- not to their faces, of course. Goldilocks, despite her marriage and his, has a bit of a crush on Hugh, prompting an unfamilair streak of jealousy in Antonia. As the plot thickens, the amateur detective couple is drawn into a web, gothic indeed, that radiates out from Bee and Ingrid, their histories, their warped and secretive personalities, and their vengeful occupations.

Each chapter is a little gem, presenting, with clockwork precision, the clues needed to solve the crimes committed, but written with the suave guile necessary to deliciously misdirect: Hugh's left-behind tobacco pouch touches off a fateful series of events, including an ominous bonfire. A "monstrosity," a pink conservatory, is among the locations surrounding the Ospreys mansion we readers several times want to urge Hugh and Antonia to search. And Raichev imbues several chapters with especially inspired invasions of character minds; two, concerning Len (Bee's husband) and Ingrid, really shine.

Although this country house mystery employs "assassins" in its title, the reader will come to understand it does so in a literary, not strictly literal, manner. This too misdirects attention a tad. As I was reading, I kept wondering whether the potential murder victims had some secret identity that merited them being assassinated rather than more "commonly" murdered. Also, perhaps cinematically, I tend to associate the term "assassin" with someone who is a spy or a ninja or a professional killer or something like that, so I also wondered whether anyone had a secret identity on that order. However, ASSASSINS AT OSPREYS ratchets up suspense differently, and, in fact, the mundane origins of many of the character's actions are, in my opinion, major attractions of the novel.

Raichev's Antonia/Hugh mysteries aren't what one would call grittily realistic because, although the characters are not caricatures, they dance almost playfully at that margin. But that is grand. This country house crime series pays homage to the old English mystery masters but then cements itself into the genre with a unique and atmospheric sleuthing voice all its own. Raichev also mischievously seems to blend into Antonia in their shared mystery writer identity. Antonia may have scoffed at Bee's gleeful announcement that she and Ingrid would be in the writer's next book, but... was Bee wrong? Find out....

I look forward eagerly to the next Antonia/Hugh mystery!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It kept me guessing almost to the end., September 20, 2010

By 

J. Lesley "(Judy)" (Midsouth, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Assassins at Ospreys (Paperback)

This is the third mystery novel written by R T Raichev that I've read and this one gets bumped up from four stars to five. I enjoyed the previous two books (The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette and The Death of Corinne), but this one really was special for me. As usual, this very talented author delighted me with his heroine who just happens to write detective fiction thus providing the reader with some interesting insights into the world of an author. Where do the ideas for books come from? Who might make it into the next book as a character? By having Antonia Darcy think and talk about these aspects of writing, Raichev gives the non-author a chance to glimpse some of the processes involved in writing for real.

Antonia Darcy has a fan of her work that must be the bane of a true author's existence. Someone who wants to get close enough to have Antonia and her husband Hugh Payne involved in her life. She invites them to her home for tea and the story begins to unfold. These characters are so well portrayed by R T Raichev that I was beginning to feel that I needed to warn Hugh and Antonia to be careful of their involvement. And there are so many different characters here who might be slightly or completely unhinged that it made it hard for me to pick out who was putting on a show and who was really capable of cold blooded murder. I loved all the twists in the plot and all the characters who were candidates for "Murderer #1" so it took me all the way up to the end to get all the threads untangled. And the major clue to solving the puzzle was laying right out there in plain sight for me to pick up and I missed it completely.

If you are interested in well plotted mysteries with fully developed characters, you simply cannot do better than to read the novels written by this author. I began with the first and am working my way through in order but that certainly is not necessary. This book, as an example, had just the right amount of back story included so that you can begin here and not miss a thing from previous books. I would advise you to plan on reading the others though. They are like the commercial for potato chips from a few years back: bet you can't read just one!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty and the Beast, November 18, 2008

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Assassins at Ospreys (Hardcover)

ASSASSINS AT OSPREYS is the most exciting mystery I've read in ages; don't let the deflationary times we live in prevent you from a roller coaster ride of fun, just plunk your money down and take a chance.

Even if by some weird chance you missed either of the preceding novels, this will still ring your bells on multiple levels. All you need to know is that Raichev's heroine, Antonia Darcy, has become an admired and astute detective writer and has married the man she met in her first recorded case (The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette), the affable Hugh, Major Payne. Signing books at a literary festival in England, Antonia meets two fans with more on their minds than mere autographs. We begin to suspect right away that Antonia (and Hugh?) are being targeted by a pair of deep planners with murder on their minds. That suspicion may or may not be justified, but Raichev is among the few present-day novelists about whom it can be said, not a word is wasted. He is the perfect storyteller for our modern age, for all that his delightful confections have a "Golden Age" aura that puts them considerably above the products of his contemporaries.

In addition, many of his most successful characters are female, and right away we meet two of the best, the sinister nurse Ingrid (whom Hugh christens "Cerberus" at first hearing about her), and Beatrice Ardleigh, the blonde invalid Ingrid wheels around (and whom Antonia calls "Goldilocks."). We learn that Ingrid feels responsible for the pretty Beatrice's plight, due to a nasty auto accident of some years earlier. The revelation of their true relations forms the emotional heart of the novel, and will keep you guessing until the very last page. Also involved in the story are Ralph Renshawe, the aging, invalid heir of a vast and rundown estate, and the compromised clergyman, Father Lillie-Lysander. Nurses and mysterious husbands complete the picture, and Hugh and Antonia find themselves drawn in little by little into a terrifying plot that threatens their very lives.

Raichev doesn't miss a trick of surprise or suspense, and even the titles of his chapters amuse. His literate wit, Gothic imagination, and mad exuberance have made him my favorite UK thriller writer of the present moment. Here's hoping for many sequels, many fetes.