A Fatal Attachment [Hardcover]

Robert Barnard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 1992

A celebrity scholar in a small village tears her nephews from their immediate family and raises them in an atmosphere of cruelty, and when a grown nephew returns to the village twenty years later, he sees that his aunt has come full circle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A veteran crime writer with seven Edgar nominations, Barnard ( A Scandal in Belgravia ) here crafts another gem. Supt. Mike Oddie and Det. Charlie Peace of the West Yorkshire Police are in the village of Bly investigating the strangling of Lydia Perceval, 50ish author of bestselling "shapely, aesthetically satisfying" biographies. A cold manipulator, Lydia had alienated her nephews Gavin and Maurice from their parents, married the brother of the man she loved (and ended the marriage when her husband didn't measure up to her high standards) and had lately cultivated the two teenage sons of a sick mother and workaholic father. She'd even decided to leave the new boys some money before she was murdered. Oddie and Peace must work through the stories of the locals (a spooning couple see a bearded stranger near Lydia's house) and Lydia's kin (the ex-husband newly moved to a nearby farm; her sister Thea, still devastated by Gavin's death in the Falklands war) to trace the murderer. The book's pleasure comes from Barnard's easy use of police procedures, his subtle characterization and his eye for village color. Lydia is a delicious monster, and the ambiguous ending delivers an extra kick. Readers Digest Condensed Books selection; Mystery Guild main selection; paperback rights to Avon.
Copyright 1992 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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: C. Scribner's Sons (August 10, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684194120
• ISBN-13: 978-0684194127
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,390,650 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.