Customer Reviews

Fruitful Bodies (Sara Selkirk Mysteries)

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Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself being totally absorbed with "Fruitful Bodies" (the third Sara Selkirk mystery installment) -- this in spite of the fact that I did grow a little tired of Sara's and Andrew's continuing relationship problems, and even as I began to wonder, for a goodish chunk of the book if Andrew really was cut out to be a police detective! But in spite of this issues, "Fruitful Bodies" did keep me happily absorbed to the very end.

Much to her dismay and chagrin, Sara suddenly finds herself surrounded with sick people and to be unofficially in charge of them! It all begins when she notices her former music instructor, Joyce Cruikshank, almost incoherently drunk at one of her concerts. And when it turns out that Joyce has been evicted from her bedsit, Sara knows that she will have to assume the care for Joyce and to (at the very least) try and get her sorted out. A lucky break comes when Sara visits her best friend and fellow musician James Ballantyne at the Sulis Clinic (a private concern that's run on wholly on naturopathy and holistic lines, where those that can afford it retreat to for rest and special care). And when Sara realises that because the former music therapist had suddenly quit her job, and there is a job opening, she immediately thinks of Joyce. What a perfect place to put Joyce in: not only would she have a job and room and board (and be out of Sara's hair) but she would also be in a place where she would be able to get some treatment for her alcoholism. But when a rather horrific murder takes place at the Sulis that seems to have a tenuous connection to a murder enquiry that DCI Andrew Poole is conducting, Sara begins to wonder if placing both James and Joyce at the Sulis Clinic was a good idea after all...

The wonderful thing about "Fruitful Bodies" is that it is a well written mystery novel with some nicely realised character portrayals. The not so wonderful part is that it takes a while for the pace to pick up -- for more than half the book, the novel remains stuck on the relationship problems that Sara and Andrew suffer and the initial murder enquiry that Andrew is conducting, and which seems to go no where for quite a while. (Which of course leads me to my other point of wondering if Andrew really had it in him to be a police detective, because he really flounders for more than half the book and makes some really bad mistakes in the investigation.) Fortunately, the pace does pick up once the second murder takes place. The other problem I had (and a spoiler alert here) was that Sara commits a sexual indiscretion towards the end of the book because she's feeling devastated. I don't think that I'm that much of prude (OK perhaps I am) but I couldn't help but feel disappointed with her behaviour. But then I have never been completely comfortable with the manner in which Sara frequently conducts herself anyway. In spite of it all though, disappointments and everything, I will admit that unlike "Fearful Symmetry," "Fruitful Bodies" was a truly absorbing book, and is a testament to Morag Joss' excellent writing style.

In Bath, internationally renowned cellist Sara Selkirk plays Dvorek on stage when she notices in the audience the pink suit. Her first cello teacher Professor Cruikshank, who tutored her back in the late 1970s at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, is attending her performance. Afterward Sara obtains work and treatment for her alcoholic ailing pedagogue as a musical therapist at the renowned Sulis Clinic run by Dr Golightly.

While she helps her former instructor, her beloved Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Poole has rid himself of his disaffected ex-wife Valerie, but that fails to improve his relationship with Sara. Andrew explains that regardless of where their romance goes, he must put his kids' needs before their desires. She may detest that, but Sara knows he is right.

When a Japanese tourist dies in an apparent homicide, nebulous links surface to the Sulis Clinic but especially to Professor Cruikshank. Besides insuring that her mentor is doing okay, Sara needs to prove that the professor had nothing to do with the murder that Andrew also investigates even as he asks her to stay out of it. A second homicide confirms her belief that all is not well at Sulis and she plans to insure that the killer pays the piper.

The third Sara Selkirk amateur sleuth tale (see FUNERAL MUSIC and HALF BROKEN THINGS) is a terrific psychological thriller that grips readers from the opening note until the final coda is played. The story line is filled with several twists that will catch the audience unaware, but like it predecessors stupendous Sara is the star performer who turns the tale into a virtuoso concerto worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

The Sara Selkirk series started out in a high note--an intelligent musician as the central character (so often, classical musicians are the villains in pedestrian mysteries)--and the first two books were interesting to read, set in Bath, and not about Jane Austen! But Sara's dithering, on-again, off-again relationship with the police detective is getting tiresome--they're not teenagers, after all. And her sexual stupidity in this third volume of the series is merely annoying, rather than sympathetic.