1983 mystery. Virginia Freer has been lightly socialising with an
antique-dealing couple in her small town, and one of them is murdered.
Then it turns out that a harmless old woman was killed in a way that
might indicate it was related…
As usual in this series, Virginia's estranged husband Felix (a
pathological liar and pilferer) is also involved; when he comes up
with a bright idea about what might have happened, is he really
deducing something, or is he just making it up to suit the fantasies
he's been building about the people involved? It's a strange way to
bring new ideas into a mystery, and while I wouldn't want to read a
lot of it at once it's quite enjoyable for an occasional book.
There are also rather a lot of people: Marcus and Rose the antique
dealers, Ted with the artificial foot and Karen his dippy wife, Jasper
the brooding prickly silversmith hopelessly in love with Virginia's
friend Audrey who's going back to Australia to get married, Roland the
nice old man who gives money to good causes, Bob the detective
sergeant living in the same group of flats as Felix in London, and Tim
the surgeon with whom Virginia has been spending time (this is book
four, I've read book 8, so I know these are iconic protagonists and
the relationship won't come to anything, but it's still a little sad
that it can't). All of these people are elevated above the stereotype
and the relationships between them are of vital importance in working
out what's going on.
The plot is a convoluted one and altogether short of happy endings,
and more seriously there are a couple of Ferrars' trademark hysterical
women, but in spite of that I rather liked this book.