RogerBW's Blog

The Mill on the Shore, Ann Cleeves 19 December 2016

1994 detective fiction; seventh of Cleeves's novels of amateur private detectives George and Molly Palmer-Jones. Jimmy Morrissey was the public voice of environmentalism and conservation, but killed himself with an overdose of antidepressants. Or did he?

It's well worth reading this after Another Man's Poison: then George and Molly were competing with each other and messing up the investigation as a result, but now they are working hard on collaborating, and do a rather better job. It's a well-drawn picture of people who've been married for years discovering new things about their relationship.

That's effectively mixed with the actual investigation. George and Molly are brought in by Morrissey's widow, his second wife, who writes articles about being the Perfect Mother and is probably the nastiest person in the book (though she has competition); she's not willing to accept that it was suicide. There's plenty of digging into the past: Morrissey's draft autobiography has vanished, and it slowly becomes apparent that he was planning to make rather more of an impact with it than anyone might have expected. There's an ex-wife about, and a textile company that surely wouldn't be mentioned if it weren't going to matter, and Jimmy's known reputations for philandering and self-aggrandisement.

The plot structure and pacing are a little odd, though I can't go into details without giving things away. There's not much about means and opportunities, though they're mentioned a little; this is more a story of motivation, and one's trying to work out who would have wanted to kill Jimmy rather than who could have.

A slightly unconventional book, but not hurt thereby. Followed by High Island Blues.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Sea Fever | Series: George and Molly Palmer-Jones | Next in series: High Island Blues

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1