I saw the title of this, and then the fact that it was based around books, in a small English country village and my mind immediately went to Agatha Christie, and authors like her.
Beth Haldane has managed to get a job working in the archives of the local private school, incredibly prestigious and the place where she has ambitions for her young son to go. Being a member of staff gives him a much better chance of admission.
Of course, before she can get further than halfway through her day (and the end of the first chapter) a murder is committed, and she is the person who discovers the body of her immediate boss Alan, a rather unlikeable character who, she later admits, gave her the creeps.
Meet Dulwich Village’s most daring resident, Beth Haldane. Mother to a sweet little boy, owner of a sulky cat… and solver of mysteries?
It’s a crisp spring day in Dulwich Village when Beth arrives at the intricate iron gates of Wyatt’s School for her new job as the historian’s assistant. But on a lunchtime stroll admiring the pristine grounds of this five-hundred-year-old institution, Beth is shocked to stumble over the body of her new boss Alan Jenkins: spectacles askew, his mustard-yellow tweed jacket covered in blood.
Gossip about outsider Beth spreads like wildfire. The parents in the playground are all whispering: did she bump him off to get her hands on his job?
Desperate to clear her name and protect her own little boy, Beth turns her research skills to hunt for the true killer. She soon discovers Alan rubbed his fellow teachers up the wrong way… could the handsome headmaster be involved? Why did Beth see a flash of the school receptionist’s bright pink jumper at the murder scene? And what is the groundskeeper hiding?
When Beth returns from her sleuthing to find her office in disarray and documents missing from the archives, it’s clear this prestigious school hides a deadly secret. But with parents and teachers panicking that the long-protected reputation of Wyatt’s is under threat, will Beth herself be in the murderer’s sights before the school bell rings?
The fact that the murder happens so early in the book, is both intriguing and a little frustrating. I guess it’s what you’re used to as a reader and I am used to having a bit of an opportunity to get to know the victim before they are slaughtered however it happens to occur. That the first proper time we meet Alan is when he’s already dead is great for moving the story along, but it also creates a blocker in the ‘getting to know you’ stakes.
It’s very obvious that the real reason behind Beth’s incredibly amateur sleuthing is because she’s under the assumption that she is a major suspect, when in reality there is little to lead anyone to believe that. She barely knows the head archivist.
Her investigation leads her to meet his wife, who is not exactly mourning her husband’s death, the man’s mistress who he only sleeps with because he hates her husband, the daughter, granddaughter, and friends of the wife. But none of this leads to an obvious suspect.
And then Beth discovers something in the school archives that leads her to suspect there could be other motives at play.
This particular plot point actually really annoyed me, and I am not sure why. I think it’s because it felt shoe-horned into the story. There was no need for it, it doesn’t actually lead anywhere apart from to a job promotion, and she starts to believe that because she knows something that anyone could have found she could be at risk.
The real murderer is revealed around three-quarters of the way through the book, with a motive that could have made things all the more interesting had there been a proper lead-up to the discovery, especially if we’d been given the chance to actually meet the victim properly before his demise.
Pros
- Well-written
- Intriguing method of introducing the murder
- Potential with the sequels for more intriguing interactions with the police detective
Cons
- Characters weren’t well-rounded
- Felt that the motive was an afterthought
