2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Antonia and Hugh work out all the tangles., May 27, 2011
This review is from: Curious Incident at Claridge's: An Antonia Darcy and Major Hugh Payne Investigation (An Antonia Darcy and Major Payne Mystery) (Hardcover)
One sure thing I can always count on with a book written by R. T. Raichev is that one seemingly small incident will turn into one big case of murder. In this instance Major Hugh Payne only has a short time to observe the beautiful young woman having coffee with a much older man in Claridge's Hotel. Major Payne is there attending a regimental reunion luncheon, not really enjoying himself very much, finishing sentences for many of the older members and providing quotations on demand. When he leaves the room to get some fresh air he finds Captain "Beau" Jesty, who has deserted his comrades, lurking behind a potted palm watching the man and woman. Jesty has quite a reputation as a ladies man and he tells Payne he intends to meet this one even if he has to use a little blackmail concerning something he just witnessed her do. From there the story moves on to investigating a poisoning which doesn't seem to have ever happened.
I always enjoy these novels, for one reason because Raichev includes little bits of tittle-tattle about the famous people of Britain. You can make your own choice as to whether these are things he has actually heard or if they are all complete fiction. Just wondering about it can be fun for me. This particular novel features Payne more than Antonia because these are his friends and he was present when Jesty became involved with the beautiful lady. Antonia does make her investigations into the mystery later, but in the first part of this novel she is busy finishing up her novel. I often wonder if the process I watch Antonia go through as an author is a mirror of what Raichev goes through in writing about her. At one point Antonia remarks that she begins to panic at about chapter ten in her novels and, yes, you will be reading chapter ten in this novel at that time.
There were quite a few different characters involved in this novel and I didn't feel that I "saw" most of them with the clarity that I usually experience in novels in this series. Some of the eccentricity seemed a little forced and the circumstance of two of the characters meeting and becoming lovers was really quite a stretch. Even with those things in mind I still enjoyed the novel and greatly appreciate knowing I can open a novel written by R. T. Raichev and expect to find unusual characters and settings. This one did not disappoint.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Does not stand up to the previous books, July 14, 2010
This review is from: Curious Incident at Claridge's: An Antonia Darcy and Major Hugh Payne Investigation (An Antonia Darcy and Major Payne Mystery) (Hardcover)
I've really been enjoying this series... until this book. It's really more of a mystery for her husband, not Antonia. I'm so peeved that Antonia comes across as a priggish stick in the mud in this one -- not at all the feisty, curious character we first met. And the mystery is just too far fetched to be believed. Puh-leeze. I won't ruin it, but I will say I easily figured it all out and I had to force myself to keep reading this book. I'm afraid I was so disappointed I will not keep reading this series. The author obviously has tired of these characters as much as I have.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Serial silliness, December 27, 2010
This review is from: Curious Incident at Claridge's: An Antonia Darcy and Major Hugh Payne Investigation (An Antonia Darcy and Major Payne Mystery) (Hardcover)
Three of the jacket blurbs invoke Agatha Christie's name, and "plotting skills," which they claim Raichev surpasses. He does, in spades, into the outer limits of improbability and silliness.
The protagonist, Penolope, 33, a former Harpers model, charming and beautiful, "bagged" the enormously wealthy Sir Seymour, 69, who is found dead in his bath. After much toing and froing and many false leads - poison pill swapping nonsense; a son who covets his father's title; an elderly albino (and his young albino lover) who had been blackmailed by Seymour's father to hand over a ring given him by Wallace, The Duchess of Windsor, mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales, as a memento of their affair; Seymour's whacky twin sister, who also covets the ring; and more - Major Payne determines the death was not natural or accidental, but caused by someone holding the old man's head under the water. And the unlikely killer was Captain Jesty, a well know cad and acquaintance of the Major, who upon first sight of Pen, was smitten beyond all sensibility, and while attempting to blackmail her into an affair, was enlisted by her to do the dirty deed.
And Pen had just flung her own mother, Mrs Mobray, Seymour's housekeeper, over a third floor parapet. In the event, early on Mobray had produced a dozen or more issue as a financial venture, selling them off for 30,000 pounds sterling, per child. Pen was raised by adoptive parents but knew Mobray was mums, and they bonded and got along just fine, thank you, to a point. Pen was happily involved with a half brother, Vic, raised in Canada and in the dark as to the familial relationships, and mums began pressing Pen for cash or she would talk. As Pen wasn't ready to give up Vic, mums is given the shove but couldn't learn fast enough how to fly.
After the Major sorts out all the serial nonsense he decides there is not sufficient evidence to level charges and the tale fizzles out. Justy and Pen have gotten away with murder. But wait, no, there is one more page, a brief addendum - we are informed Pen has taken flying lessons and she and Justy are killed in the crash of the light weight two seater, and "Justice is served."
Ahem. The reader however has not been treated justly. There are many, many better plotted and better written "mysteries" out there, and no reason to waste your limited free time on this sort of dreck. If mysteries are your wont take a look at Sayers, Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter, Sharon Kay Penman, Frank Tallis, or revisit the old lady herself, there seem to be a number of freshly reissued copies of Christie's stories available.
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