The Terriford Mystery by Marie Belloc LowndesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A classic mystery story with a different angle: very little of it is concerned with the investigation of the crime, and what investigation there is doesn't end up being very important, thanks to a last-minute revelation.
Instead, its focus is the distress of the innocent accused and his equally innocent beloved, who are universally believed to be respectively the murderer and the motive for the murder of the accused's late wife. It's only detected as a crime at all because some busybody suggests that the circumstances of her death were suspicious, and her widower, wanting to put the rumours firmly to bed for good, insists on an exhumation, not expecting for a moment that there will be evidence of murder.
The fact that he was the one who insisted on the exhumation is never discussed in his defense, and in fact the legal side of things in general is a bit slapdash. More interesting as a human story involving a murder than a mystery in the genre sense, and the author could have had a stronger grasp on where to put commas and tends to repeat vocabulary and phrasing. I'm also reasonably sure the word "illusive" should have been "elusive".
Still, it's enjoyable for what it is if you don't expect it to be something else.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment