Thirty-six years after a man dies mysteriously at the famous Vereker mansion, Lucy, one of the Vereker sisters, calls her lover, Paul, to her deathbed and asks him to help her solve the long-ago mystery. Reprint. NYT. PW.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The yellow room was one of about 50 in Blatchards, an old mansion near Bury St. Edmonds. Owned by Lord Vereker, Blatchards was dominated by his five striking daughters whose politics and personal lives in the 1930s and '40s are at the heart of Dickinson's bittersweet and subtly compelling tale. Flashbacks told in alternating chapters by Lucy Vereker, the third daughter, and her lover Paul Ackerley, now near the end of their lives, describe events that culminated in the 1956 fire that destroyed the house, an event that each one thought the other may have, in different ways, engineered. The fire covered up evidence about the death--accident, suicide or murder?--of Gerry Grantworth, the eldest daughter's husband, and coincided with a public scandal involving Lucy's husband, Tommy Seddon, the Lord Seneschal. Intelligence work (during and after WW II and involving Lucy, Paul and Gerry), delicate Foreign Office operations and financial misdealings mix with sexual liaisons, marriages and life-long romances and jealousies in the rapidly shifting postwar culture. Deft and absorbing, Dickinson's ( Play Dead ; The Last Houseparty ) latest is as much a story of enduring love--of people and a way of life--as it is an intriguing mystery.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
In a series of flashbacks, Paul Ackerley and Lucy Vereker, longtime friends and lovers, recall the series of coincidences that brought them together. Their reminiscences take them from Lucy's childhood, spent in an ugly English mansion with her four beautiful sisters, through Paul's tour of duty as an intelligence officer in World War II, from the rise of Paul and his contemporaries to the ranks of power and influence after the war to the Seddon scandal--involving Lucy's first love, Gerry Grantworth--that rocked the foundations of the British upper class and the lives of the five Vereker sisters. Skillfully told with a compelling blend of nostalgia and realism, Dickinson's story moves quickly toward a strange and tragic climax. The sometimes confusing plot occasionally leaves the reader feeling bewildered, and the sensational murder scandal around which the drama revolves isn't nearly as interesting as the details of British upper-class life before and during World War II. Still, readers looking for a multifaceted story that's different from the run-of-the-mill mystery should find this one just the ticket. Emily Melton
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an awesome read...,
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This review is from: The Yellow Room Conspiracy (Paperback)
"The Yellow Room Conspiracy" begins in 1992, after a radio program has a quiz show that features what was known as "The Seddon Affair" in 1956. Paul Ackerley hears the show while working in his garden and promptly breaks the radio. Lucy (Vereker) Seddon, his companion is suffering from a terminal disease, and asks Paul to marry her. She also asks him to tell her how he managed to kill Gerry Grantworth years ago, considering that the door to the room he was in was locked, at which point he tells her that he'd always thought she had done it. He decides that independently they should write down their individual stories leading up to that fateful night, and thus begins a tale which spans two world wars, brings the reader into politics, and into the lives of a group of sisters of the English country-home set. The story presented is done from two viewpoints, Lucy's and Paul's, told via flashbacks, and isn't a very pretty one.
This book was phenomenal. This is my first book by this author, but it most definitely will not be my last. It is well written, the characters are incredibly alive, and the story will hold you in its grip until the very end. This author definitely has a talent for story telling. I'd definitely recommend it to people who want something way above average in their reading, or to people who enjoy books that span a lifetime. Readers of British crime fiction should absolutely not miss this one. At times the story may seem a bit convoluted, but eventually all is explained and clarified, keeping the reader turning pages. I started this book at 8 pm last night and finished it around midnight because I absolutely could not put it down -- and that, for me, is a sign of a fantastic book. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Dickinson,
By
This review is from: The Yellow Room Conspiracy (Paperback)
Peter Dickinson reminds me of two other British novelists, Robert Barnard and J.I.M. Stewart. His works usually contain mysteries, as do Barnard's, and are usually novels of manners, as are Stewart's. And like both, he is at his best when delineating complicated and ambiguous relationships whose history and roots illuminate present events. In addition, Dickinson shares the satirical wit and polished style of the other two."The Yellow Room Conspiracy" is a mystery and a novel of manners. Narrated alternately by an aged couple looking back on critical events of their youth, Paul Ackerley and Lucy Vereker, the novel evokes a between-the-wars world of Eton and country house parties followed by a post-war empire whose decline culminates in the Suez crisis. The double narration Dickinson employs is an effective technique. Between them, Lucy, the society beauty, and Paul Ackerley, the archetypal outsider, recreate a series of events that climax in the death of another outsider, Gerry Grantworth, and the burning down of Lucy's family home. Who killed Gerry? Who burned the house? These are the questions that Paul and Lucy finally explore after spending a lifetime together -- each secretly believing the other had. Dickinson makes you care about the answers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book you'll remember for a long time,
By
This review is from: The Yellow Room Conspiracy (Paperback)
I first read this book almost fifteen years ago and still think about it. Dickinson is a very talented writer and this is one of his better works.
The juxtaposition of the present and the past in which the tale occurs is handled very well. Many people have gone down the path of this convention of two tracked stories, but few handle it with the aplomb of Dickinson. One other thing stands out in my mind is the restrained way that Dickinson portrays base behavior and emotion. There's a tremendous amount of unavenged evil in the book, more so than in many noir novels. yet, unlike them, it is all handled very smoothly. It is up to the reader to realize just how evil an act has been perpetrated and how justice does not always happen in a straight forward manner. Highly recommended.
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