A Touch of Mortality [Audio Cassette]

Ann Granger (Author), Judith Boyd (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

Meredith Mitchell's old friend Sally Caswell and her scientist husband have moved from London to the quiet of Oxfordshire, but find nothing but trouble. Quarrels between the moody scientist and an eccentric neighbour, goats in the backyard, and a letter bomb in the mail all add up to malice, mystery, and murder--and another case for Meredith and her police inspector friend Alan Markby to solve.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette: 8 pages
• Publisher: Recorded Books (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141936345X
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent entry in an excellent mystery series, September 3, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Touch of Mortality: A Mitchell and Markby Village Whodunit (Mitchell and Markby Series) (Hardcover)

Ann Granger's novels involving Chief Inspector Alan Markby and his on-and-off paramour, Meredith Mitchell, take the classic British countryside cozy and update it in ways that turn it into an end-of-the-millennium contemporary. The inhabitants of a duplex in Oxfordshire symbolize this clash between the old and new. The ancient building with large back lot, once used to house farm families, is now split between Bodicote, the elderly village eccentric who keeps goats and has a wandering eye, and Liam and Sally Caswell, a professional couple who moved from London to the peaceful countryside so that Liam, a scientist whose research involved beagles, can write a book based on his work.

Trouble shows up swiftly. Liam's a dragon whose short fuse and total lack of manners has enraged nearly everyone he's met. Bodicote and he have already clashed over the goats getting into his garden, and Boticote's habit of barging into their house led to numerous unpleasant scenes. Bodicote's also angry at Sally when she fed his goats turnips and unknowingly spoilt their milk for awhile.

Then a letter bomb goes off, nearly killing Sally. A local animal rights group is suspected, but Markby's not sure.

The more popular Brit mysteries these days, and here I'm thinking of the ones on PBS and A&E featuring Inspector Morse, Jane Tennison and Dr. Edward Fitzgerald (of "Cracker"), feature the walking wounded as heroes. In general, they're unpleasant to be around, and saved only from total ostracism by the brilliance of their work. Granger's Mitchell and Markby are good people in the tradition of the classic characters, and she leaves the bad attitudes, shaky morals and addictive habits to her villains, such as the wonky thirtysomething son of the lady of the manor, who share the same manorial home and lead the local animal rights group.

"A Touch of Mortality" is full of twists and turns in the second half that led this reader to continue turning pages long after bedtime, and ends with a satisfactory climax in which justice triumphs and the guilty get punished, sometimes in ways that have nothing to do with the legal system. Granger scatters her clues fairly, lays down red herrings with consummate ease, and leads readers repeatedly, and fairly, down the garden path. As an excellent example of classic mystery storytelling, "A Touch of Mortality" is the best I've read this year.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, June 30, 1998

By 

Pam "SMB,SLT" (Flint Hills of Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Touch of Mortality: A Mitchell and Markby Village Whodunit (Mitchell and Markby Series) (Hardcover)

Ann Granger has done it again. Mitchell and Markby are quite a pair. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a quiet read by the fire (or during the present heatwave the airconditioner). Granger conjures up good images of the characters and the English countryside. I enjoy the little tidbits of life in the pubs, the cottages, the towns and the interplay amongst the characters. My only regret is that since they start in England it takes a long time to get the next volume in the United States.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best in a great series, March 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Touch of Mortality: A Mitchell and Markby Village Whodunit (Mitchell and Markby Series) (Hardcover)

Liam and Sally Caswell leave London for the quiet rural community of
Oxfordshire so that Liam, an animal research scientist, can write a book on
his findings. However, instead of finding the countryside quiet and serene,
the Caswells are immediately drawn into a squabble with their elderly
neighbor Bodicote over the senior citizen's wandering goats. Liam also
manages to alienate just everyone else in the neighborhood with his boorish
behavior.
..... Everything abruptly changes for the worse when Sally nearly dies from a
letter bomb. Assigned to investigate the case is Chief Inspector Alan
Markby, who thinks that blaming animal rights groups for a terrorist act may
be premature. As he digs deeper, with the help of his sometimes girl friend,
Meredith Mitchell, Alan realizes that Liam has many enemies in London and
here in Oxfordshire, including Bodicote. Danger mounts and Alan knows that he
must solve the case soon before murder occurs.
...... A TOUCH OF MORTALITY is a great mystery based on the concept of a classic
English cozy in modern times. The story line is superb as it is loaded with
numerous false starts and reasonably distributed clues. Alan and Meredith
are great lead protagonists, making Ann Granger's novel one of the best
mystery stories of the year. This reviewer strongly recommends the previous
Inspector Markby novels as well.

.....Harriet Klausner