Customer Reviews

Death in the Castle: A Novel

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I recently bought this book at a "library sell out" were it just caught my eye. This is a rather unusual tale. Sir Richard and Lady Mary are out of money and need to sell their castle, with great regret. The castle is about 1,000 years old and had many royal people live in it or visit it. The State has offered to turn it into a prison. John Blayne, a wealthy American comes, wishing to buy, and them move the castle to Connecticut. There is a maid that Blayne it sure is not only a maid and an old man who claims to be her granddad. However, is he? This is a very nice book and fun to read.

I could not believe the same author who wrote The Good Earth had penned this book. It concerns an ancient English castle with two elderly inhabitants, Lord Richard and his frail little wife, whose name i have already forgotten. Enter a dashing American Millionare who wants to take the castle apart, brick by brick, and take it back to America to house the wonderful art works his Mother purchased over the years. Of Course, Sir Richard is incensed and things go from bad to worse with murder being done toward the end. Who is the maid, Kate? Only the reader knows for sure. I hope somebody will read this and let me know how Pearl Buck could have penned this and TGE.

The cover of my 1960's era paperback of Death in the Castle. described the novel as "chilling and thrilling". It isn't.

Sir Richard and Lady Mary need to sell the thousand year old castle which has been in the family for hundreds of years. Sir Richard has no heir to pass the castle on to, and if he doesn't sell the English government will turn it into a prison or a powerplant. John Blayne, an American, wishes to buy the castle, but he wants to take the castle apart piece by piece and bring it to America and make it into a museum. Sir Richard does not know this and this becomes a source of conflict.

The maid, Kate, is more than she seems to be and while the reader is given enough clues as to her identity, most of the other characters have no idea.

There is supposedly some sort of a mystery here regarding the sale and the mysterious "they" who also inhabit the castle, but to be perfectly honest the story is not very interesting, there is no mystery, there is nothing thrilling or chilling and the novel is little more than the barest thread of a story about a couple not really willing to sell and a buyer who wants to be honest and respectful.

This isn't very critical, but the whole book and uneventful storyline just bored me. It's a short novel, but there is no substance.

-Joe Sherry