Ten Lords A-Leaping [Paperback]

Ruth Dudley Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2008

The House of Lords will never be the same again. Disinclined to watch her language or moderate her manners, Jack Troutbeck, assisted by her old friend Robert Amiss, plots vigorously with others to scupper an anti-hunting bill of which she violently disapproves. But she hadnt reckoned with the campaign of intimidation mounted by the animal activists and the attempt on the life of one of her allies, shortly followed by scenes of horrifying carnage amongst the peers...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sixth Robert Amiss mystery is a wonderful romp set largely among the Lords of Parliament?either in their chambers or on their estates. The redoubtable Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, Mistress of St. Mary's College, Cambridge (seen in Matricide at St. Martha's), about to be elevated to the House of Lords, imperiously enlists the bookish Amiss to assist her in her latest campaign, namely to defend the ancient British tradition of fox-hunting from an all-out assault by various animal-rights activists. Amiss doesn't quite approve of hunting, but that doesn't deter Troutbeck: "Bugger your moral susceptibilities," she orders, and he does. While the opposition counts among its supporters the likes of Brother Francis (Lord Purseglove), whose vapid nature poetry would embarrass a bunny rabbit, Troutbeck's allies include a couple of boorish lords who must be controlled, while the Rights of Animals League proves a formidable foe. Troutbeck is great fun?a woman of large and lusty appetites who demolishes arguments or a glass of whisky with equal gusto. Amiss is swept along in her wake as the war of words and wits turns to a murderous assault in the House of Lords that leaves several members dead and others shaken. Edwards ably skewers fox-hunters and anti-fox hunters alike, as well as a slew of other targets in this farcical and appealing mystery.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Outspoken head of St. Martha's College, Cambridge, Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, summons friend Robert Amiss, former civil servant and sometime sleuth, to attend her elevation to the peerage. Her maiden speech will defend fox hunting, a topic that has inspired heated public debate, threatening letters, and vandalism. When the violence escalates to mass murder, Amiss aids the police. The often acerbic narration, ready wit, strong characterization, and comic emphasis on food make this an appealing follow-up to Matricide at St. Martin's (St. Martin's, 1995).
Copyright 1996 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: 227 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (August 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590584376
• ISBN-13: 978-1590584378
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #971,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent Slapstick and Satire Abound, September 13, 2005

By 

Joyce L. Tompsett "American expat returned" (San Francisco for now) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ten Lords a Leaping (Robert Amiss Mysteries 6) (Paperback)

As an American who spends a frightful amount of time in the UK, I found this book to be hilarious, but then I am familiar with a lot of how the UK works. For this series, it probably helps although it isn't absolutely essential. If you watch a lot of Mystery or read a lot, then you'll get by fine.

This book is dry British humor. It holds no sacred cows in fact she targets and sends up sacred cows in her books. She also has a cat character, Plutarch, who is one of the funnier cats in writing without that nauseating cloyness that many authors give pets. Then again, that's probably part of the humor.

If you like dry humor, if you appreciate poking fun at most everything, if you like intelligent slapstick (do you like Mr. Bean?) then you will probably appreciate the humor here. It also helps if you understand and appreciate irony. Otherwise, much of this may either bewilder or bore you. If you're a bit prudish this probably isn't your cup of tea either.

One other thing - the mystery here is just a vehicle for a hilarious story. If you want mysteries to be the key, this will probably irritate you too. I wasn't particularly worried about the solution as I was enjoying the caper far more, but I knew what I was in for.

2.0 out of 5 stars Bugger your moral susceptibilities, July 22, 2010

By 

upfront_reader (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ten Lords A-Leaping (Paperback)

For the first half of this book, I enjoyed the author's wit and storytelling quite a bit. Any writer who has the courage to expose the anthropomorphic absurdities of the animal rights movement has my eager attention. But the second half of the book didn't quite work for me. It seemed like scene after scene of characters discussing the situation rather than anything really taking place. After the twentieth phone conversation between two characters telling each other what they'd found out or arranging meetings over dinner, I began to get a little impatient. Indeed, the most action-packed scene in the second half of the book involves retrieving an escaped cat. By the time I got to the solution of the mystery--which seemed to come out of nowhere and had little to do with the theme of the book--I really didn't care that much anymore. I appreciate the author's willingness to satirize so many political points of view--on both sides of the pond--and Baroness Troutbeck was a hoot, but I would have liked a little less conversation and a little more action.

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Even Informative, September 5, 2005

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ten Lords a Leaping (Robert Amiss Mysteries 6) (Paperback)

For us American types who know next to nothing about the British House of Lords, this was an instructive book. But that's not it's real purpose, of course, since it is after all a murder mystery. Baroness Jack Troutbeck, newly elevated to that title, is now in the Lords and consequently her sidekick Robert Amiss gets to investigate a murder there. One is generally less interested in the mystery in a Ruth Dudley Edwards book than enjoying the comic twists in the plot line and laughing at the even quirkier characters, and both abound in this tale.

Like the previous reviewer, I believe the ending is rather contrived and it does break one of the cardinal rules of mysterydom, which is that there should be enough clues along the way to give away the identity of the murderer to a careful reader. But since this is a comic mystery that is a bit less of a crime, if you'll pardon the pun.

I did not enjoy this one as much as some other Dudley Edwards mysteries, but it did keep me entertained and surely that counts for a lot. One point: someone needs to tell the writer that the state of Virginia is not in the American midwest.