Customer Reviews

That Yew Tree's Shade

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Those who like their crime fiction to be well written, from yesteryear, and narrated with a wry sense of humour, ought to sample the works of Cyril Hare being newly reprinted by the House of Stratus. Cyril Hare was the pseudonym for an English county court judge, Gordon Clark (1900-1957). He wrote 11 or 12 detective novels during the last 20 years of his life. This one was published in 1954.

Hare's regular sleuth, retired lawyer Francis Pettigrew, solves the murder mystery. Like the author, he knows all about "draughty town halls, where inaudible witnesses compete vainly with the roar of traffic outside, and stuffy police courts loud with the clamour of imprisoned stray dogs". The victim seems to be an unlikely candidate for murder. She is a relatively new arrival in the village. She rents a house. She is killed while delivering notices advertising a forthcoming bazaar. All very English. As Pettigrew, and members of the local police force discover, however, many people had both opportunity and a motive for killing her.

This is recommended for the fastidious reader, not for those seeking thrills, suspense, and excitement.

Well I finished "That Yew Tree's Shade" by Cyril Hare (US title: Death Walks the Woods) Apparently this author is one of the classics in the crime/mystery genre. The novel is centered about the investigator Francis Pettigrew. Well I must admit that I was not too caught by this book. To me it's greatest charm was the naivety and innocence of its setting in rural England in the first part of the 20th. century. Things we would normally expect from a crime/mystery book like suspense, thrill, fear, I didn't encounter much of in this book. Honestly the investigator Francis Pettigrew seemed a little stupid and laid back to me, certainly no Sherlock Holmes! Also the plot of the murderer was in no way impressive! It's interesting where in the lifecycle of a genre the classics become born. Well this is one of the founders of the English crime novel, but it seemed quite dull to me.