2003 somewhat parodic cosy detective fiction; third and last of
Anderson's novels of the Earl of Burford and Inspector Wilkins. The
last two house parties at Alderley ended in murder, but surely there
can't be any harm in having people down for Great-Aunt Flossie's
funeral and the reading of her will?
This last book of the loose trilogy came out twenty years after
the first two, though I suspect it was written earlier. The sense of
humour and exaggerated characters are the same, and if there's a
little less energy there's also more effort expended in making sure
everything's cleared up by the end.
The designated victim, a woman who's made a minor career out of
getting confidences out of servants and selling the dirt to
newspapers, is snubbed at the will, accuses the other heirs of a
conspiracy to poison Great-Aunt Flossie's mind against her, and
threatens to reveal all their secrets. Then she goes to bed. One can
hardly be surprised when she's found smothered in the morning.
There's some reference to earlier books, but Anderson goes out of his
way to avoid mentioning the resolutions of those mysteries, and one
could jump in here without much trouble. The earlier murders have had
an effect, though: the Burfords are distinctly hesitant to entertain
in any way, and when he arrives Wilkins is greeted as a friend of the
family. (He's back to being the lead investigator here, which suits
him better than second fiddle.)
The usual cast is here: the ne'er-do-well young man, the QC, the MP,
the cousin who's been in America for ten years, the downtrodden
daughter, and so on. Most of them are introduced in their native
habitats before we see them at Alderley, which helps give a better
impression of who they are when they're not in company. There's
spiritualism and stolen toothpaste. And of course the thirty-nine
cufflinks strewn on the floor near the body.
There's contrivance, of course, as there tends to be in a complex
murder mystery, but it has reasons for its existence. There's never
any trouble keeping track of who's who. I only realised that something
was meant to be unexpected when nobody talked about it, and that
pointed the way to the murderer's identity, but that's made up for by
the resolution of the case and the other matters that have come up
during the stay.
I recommend the whole series, but particularly the first and this one.
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