Review: The Late Scholar

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Peter and Harriet return to Oxford, a place they both love, though the (fictional) college concerned is one that neither of them attended. The story involves petty squabbling between two entrenched, and equally sized, factions among the College Fellows, one of which wants to sell a historical manuscript gifted by a past donor and use the money to buy land to prop up the college finances, while the other faction considers this absolutely unacceptable. I found this completely plausible, down to the pettiness and inflexible positions, having had the misfortune to live in a block of flats where there were long-standing factions and controversies.

Peter is called in because he is, by heredity, the College Visitor and so entitled to rule in a case of deadlock, but he quickly puts his detective hat on, his interest sparked by the mysterious disappearance of the Warden and the deaths or near-deaths of several Fellows.

It has the series' abiding fault of having too many minor characters with minimal distinguishing characteristics who are therefore hard to keep straight, and, like most of the books, would benefit from a dramatis personae at the front to which the reader can refer, not least to check which faction each one belongs to. I lost track of the politics relatively early on. The investigation also seems to be conducted at rather a leisurely pace, given the stakes. But there are some strong moments, and the mystery aspect is well handled, while the atmosphere of academic Oxford is beautifully conveyed.

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