Grave Matters [Hardcover]

Margaret Yorke (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd (December 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727817078
• ISBN-13: 978-0727817075
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Formula amateur sleuth cozy murder (details), September 15, 2009

By 

Patrick W. Crabtree "The Old Grottomaster" (Lucasville, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grave Matters (Black Dagger Crime) (Hardcover)

This 2001 155-page hardcover was originally published in 1973. Chivers Printing (England) has reprinted this book and other mysteries through "The Black Dagger Crime Series," in an effort to spark new interest in older mysteries. Here's another: The Bird in the Chimney (Black Dagger Crime).

The story here focuses on Dr. Patrick Grant (the protagonist and amateur detective), a professor of English (and a Shakespeare specialist) at England's Oxford University during the 1970s; however, the story opens in Athens, Greece at The Acropolis where Patrick is vacationing, coincidentally at the same time as a fellow Englander, a retired well-known schoolmistress. Patrick sees her take a fall down the steps of that renowned Mediterranean facade, the result of being bumped by a careless running youth. The schoolmistress is instantly killed and no more is seen of the young man who caused her demise. The local police rule it an accident.

After contacting the British authorities, Patrick sees to her burial in Greece and notifies her closest relative back home. When he makes a follow-up visit to that lady in a small English village, he gets to meet yet another relative, a great niece of the deceased, an attractive gal who much suits his fancy. But as he pursues his interests in the young lady, a friend of her family takes a fall down the steps at the British Museum and is killed just like the first lady. Patrick smells a big rat and pretty soon he has his eye on one. Unfortunately, the young lady might just be involved with this character.

This story is okay but certainly nothing special. You don't get lots of character and story development over the course of 155 pages and for the last one-third of the book the story becomes a little fuzzy.

While it was an okay read, it isn't really a cozy murder that I can recommend to others.