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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting Barnard,
By
This review is from: Unholy Dying: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)
One of the best things about the consistently good Robert Barnard is his ability to delve into unlikely venues as the settings for his mysteries. In this case, he juxtaposes a Roman Catholic parish in the north of England with the world of small-time tabloid journalism. Barnard peoples his parish of St. Catherine's with a variety of eccentric and believable characters and adds a masterly repugnant villain -- reporter Cosmo Horrocks -- to stir up a pot of parochial passions and hidden crimes.Some of the more memorable characters in "Unholy Dying" are the beleaguered and persecuted Fr. Pardoe, the primly observant Miss Preece-Dembleby, the malevolent Doris Crabtree, and the frighteningly dysfunctional Norris family. My only quibble with the novel is that some of these characters are so finely drawn that I regretted not learning more about them after they made their all-too-brief appearances. The book has two scenes that are Barnard at his absolute best. The first is the interview between Superintendent Mike Oddie and the Bishop of Leeds. This passage is must reading for anyone who has ever suffered from the arrogance of power and longs to see what happens when it's deflated and derailed. The other scene is the climax of the novel. Although I could see where the investigation of Horrocks' murder was leading, Barnard's terrifying and shocking conclusion caught me unprepared and left me riveted.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best Barnard,
By
This review is from: Unholy Dying: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)
A catholic priest in a North of England parish is wrongly suspected of sexual and financial malfeasance. The muck-raking journalist covering and fomenting the scandal is murdered. The Yorkshire scene with 21st century ways battling traditional mores is well done. It's skillfully plotted and the pages keep turning. I thought Cosmo Horrocks was too villainous to be true, and the hypocritical bishop and malevolent village gossip were drawn too simply. Considered as a classical whodunnit (not that there's such a thing any more) it lacked early clues. A nice cast of plausibly motivated suspects is built up but the solution comes from extra evidence supplied in the last few pages. No sex (at least not on-stage, although religious attitudes to sexuality are a strong theme)and only the minimal necessary violence.My disappointment was that there is none of the Barnard literary humor. After "Death and the Chaste Apprentice" about the Restoration drama "said to be the work of two hands, but probably only half a brain" and "A Hovering of Vultures" about Bronte fanatics this was fairly run-of-the mill.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Death of a bully boy.,
By
This review is from: Unholy Dying: A Crime Novel (Hardcover)
Unholy Dying is my intro to the work of Robert Bernard, who appears to have built himself quite a good reputation. If it's possible to judge by only one book, that reputation is well deserved. This little mystery (only 280 pages) has some of the liveliest, most skillfully drawn characters in the genre. The oft-used method of switching points of view every chapter works effectively here, and the plot is deceptively simple. Bernard's way with words is also enjoyable - literate, concise, and descriptive - and he's adept at building suspense slowly but surely. Looking forward to reading some others by this author.
(By the way, the cover bears little relation to the story - the murder doesn't happen in that setting.)
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