Customer Reviews

Candle for a Corpse

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

 

 

I have read eight of the Markby/Mitchell series. I would place this one in the top three. The suspenseful plot builds at a wonderful pace and the full mystery is not solved until the last page. This series is glorious either in book form or in audio when the magnificent Judith Bond reads. Granger's books place you square in the middle of an English village and you don't leave it until the final pages.

The most astonishing thing about this series is that the author follows the same formula in each one: read one you've just about read them all. The worst part of the formula -- for me -- is that Meridith Mitchell, whose only connection to the police is her personal relationship with Inspector/Superintendent Alan Markby, repeatedly does the most stupid and dangerous meddling into the police murder investigation. In all five books that I've read so far, Meridith winds up face-to-face with the criminal, who has twigged to her suspicions and who proceeds to attempt to murder her. Markby warns her in each book to stay out of the investigation, but, sure enough, in the next book/investigation, off she goes again. In this book, Candle for a Corpse, she drops her lighted flashlight through the roof of the shed containing important evidence; of course, the shed's owner finds the flashlight -- with her initials scratched on it! -- and goes after Meridith with a meat cleaver. As in all the books I've read, she's saved in the nick of time. As Anna Russell would say, "Now I ask you!"

I wish Markby would charge her with interfering with a police murder investigation: perhaps that would put a halt to her ridiculous behavior -- but I suspect this is the author's gimmick for advancing clues and adding action.

I have already purchased one more in this series and I intend to read it. It appears a bit later than Candle for a Corpse. Has Meridith learned her lesson? Actually, has Ann Granger learned a few more tricks of the trade? If not, A Word After Dying will be the last Ann Granger book I buy/read.

Ann Granger is one of the best modern English village mystery writers out there as far as I'm concerned. I love the Mitchell and Markby series. There are plenty of spills and chills, and many surprises along the way. In this book a skeleton of a young pregnant girl is found buried in a very old grave. Markby feels haunted by this corpse and feels he must do his best for this young girl since she'd been laying forgotten for 12 years. Of course Meredith has to help because she knows how much this case means to Alan. They uncover some old village secrets that have lain undisturbed for many years. And a lot of people that want to keep the past buried at any cost. There are lots of wonderful characters in this book. I particularly like the old grave digger Nat Bullen. I am really enjoying this very entertaining series!

This was my first (but definitely not my last) experience with Meredith and Markby. I completely enjoyed this story, and my only complaint was that the style was so easy to read I was through the book long before I was ready for it to end. I felt like a child following a trail of jelly beans as the clues and red herrings turned up. Just an awfully lot of fun with a couple of sharp plot turns in the end that sends you into worlds of thought and conjecture when you lay the book down finished. I highly recommend it.