1990 mystery; third in Brett's Mrs Pargeter series (amateur
sleuthing). Mrs Pargeter keeps another recent widow company on a
package holiday to Corfu, but clearly things are amiss even before the
murder and the cover-up.
Well, as a mystery it's utterly straightforward: Brett is stingy
with the clues, but as soon as a piece of information is learned one
can see its significance. There's no particular reasoning needed here.
The plot leaves no cliché unturned, and there's a deus ex machina
ending that smacks of desperation.
Cliché also abounds in the description of the package tourists,
including "the young couple from South Woodham Ferrers in Essex, who
had just got their eighteen-month-old Craig off to sleep", "the
retired man in the beige safari suit, who had appointed himself the
life and soul of the party", and "the Secretary with Short Bleached
Hair". Fortunately they're used mostly for incidental colour; it's the
locals who actually matter, and they're rather better drawn.
All right, it's no This Rough Magic; the humour here is not from a
sense of the ridiculous, but more "look at the horrible people, aren't
you glad you're not like them". Generally I've enjoyed either the
mystery or the characters in Brett's books; in this one, neither of
them really worked. In the end I'd file this one next to Brand's Tour
de Force, and that's not a compliment. Followed by Mrs Pargeter's
Pound of Flesh.
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