A Fatal Attachment [Paperback]

Robert Barnard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1994

As old Lydia Perceval plans to destroy yet another group of impressionable young children's love for their parents, the list of those who would have her die grows longer. Reprint. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A cruel and manipulative woman is strangled to death in a British village in Barnard's subtle, delightful novel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- The author of The Skeleton in the Grass (Thorndike, 1988) has written another page-turner. Lydia Perceval has always controlled the men in her life, from her former beau, to her n'er-do-well ex-husband, to the nephews to whom she is so devoted that she usurps her sister's role as mother. Just as it seems that she has lost her power, two boys enter her life. Intelligent and friendly, they soon become her pet project. In fact, when Lydia is murdered, they are surprised to learn that she had not yet placed them in her will, while investigating superintendent Mike Oddie observes that her former boyfriend is not at all surprised to be her sole heir. The deeper Oddie delves into Lydia's past, the more he realizes that there was nothing simple about any of her "attachments" and that any one of them could have led to her fatal end. Combining the psychological probing of a Ruth Rendell story with the class tensions of a P. D. James mystery, Barnard creates a unique form of suspense novel. It's an excellent introduction to a prize-winning writer.
- Catherine Clancy, Boston Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380719983
• ISBN-13: 978-0380719983
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #934,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF BARNARD'S BEST, September 6, 2010

By 

Joseph Yeater "Ol' Country Boy & City Wife" (Hampton, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fatal Attachment (Paperback)

Not a lot of action but plenty of character study. Great novel and I do mean great. The subtle poison that our Miss Lydia injects into her victim's minds and hearts change their lives forever. Her final comeuppance is quite masterful. The ending stays with you long after you finish the last sentence. Recommended most highly

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant novel, brilliant mystery, September 26, 2006

By 

P. Schumacher (atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Fatal Attachment (Paperback)

Robert Barnard's wonderful books fall into two rough periods.

His earlier books were primarily social satires, ripping pretensions and class pomposity right and left. They also happened to be good mysteries, but that was secondary.

His later books--roughly from Death and the Chaste Apprentice on--have been less about satire and more about the difficulties and small tragedies everyone, of every class, must face.

This book, A Fatal Attachment, includes both. The chief protagonist, and victim, Lydia Perceval, is a smart, manipulative, ruthless, self-deluded snob--who "appropriates" others' children to mold them into the Romantic heroes she dreams of, but destroys everyone in the process.

The portrait of her and the harm she does is biting; but--like all Barnard's portraits--also sympathetic (though not forgiving).

She gets her comeuppance in a way that no one could have foreseen. You have to wait till the very last four sentences to realize just how unexpected, and how karmic, her fate is.

The other characters are all more sympathetically dealt with, and all form a complex picture of parental-vs.-sibling rivalries, and class-vs.-personal conflicts.

A masterful study of a small town in England, and a brilliant portrait of its people and of universal loss and redemption.