Crime Roundup November 2005 by Carla McKay
'Oxford Letters' by Veronica Stallwood ; 'The Devil's Feather' by Minette Walters ; 'Jacquot and The Angel' by Martin O'Brien ; 'The Third Woman' by Mark Burnell
W.H. Auden's classic prescription for successful crime fiction was a closed
society characterised by such innocence that murder is a shocking violation
of the usual state of grace. For this reason, I suspect, Oxford has long
been a popular setting for British mystery writers who play off the
respectable milieu of academia and culture against the evil that lurks
beneath the surface. Alas, Oxford is no longer so genteel or respectable and
this is reflected in Veronica Stallwood's latest mystery in her Oxford
series. 'Oxford Letters' (Headline £18.99) features, as usual, the novelist
Kate Ivory who is required to turn amateur sleuth once more, this time in an
effort to rescue her mother from the clutches of a married couple, the oily
Freemans, who have insinuated themselves into her life - and possibly her
financial arrangements. Also, as usual, the cynical but practised reader can
see what's coming before the protagonists can, but this somehow never
detracts from the pure enjoyment of an hour or two in Stallwood's company.
The idea behind Minette Walters' 'The Devil's Feather' (Macmillan £17.99) is
an excellent one: a psychopathic Scotsman acts out his sadistic fantasies
against women in atrocity hotspots - unnoticed among the general chaos of
war. However, a sharp young foreign correspondent, Connie Burns, starts
asking awkward questions when the man in question pops up under different
names in different countries. In Iraq, she is taken hostage, tortured and
released - no coincidence she thinks. Panicked and degraded, she retires to
rural Dorset to hide and lick her wounds only to become embroiled in a
mystery revolving around the neglect of an old lady. The two stories, one so
compelling, the other, more low-key, are eventually linked by the
reappearance of the psychopath.
Possibly only an Englishman could set his detective fiction in France and
infuse it with such passion for the place and its people. Lyrical
descriptions of the blue Luberon hills, lovable shopkeepers, mouthwatering
food and even some pipe-smoking old resistance fighters set the scene.
Indeed, when several members of a wealthy German family resident in Provence
are found murdered, the reader is almost lured into sympathising with the
gunman. The war, of course, provides a motive but is not the whole story as
Martin O'Brien's ultra-cool, spliff-smoking, pony-tailed chief inspector
finds out in 'Jacquot and The Angel' (Headline £18.99). This is the second
Jacquot mystery and although it's as well-written and compelling as the
first, I rather preferred it when the inspector was prowling round the far
seedier, less picture-postcard port of Marseilles. Perhaps, since he's done
so well on this case, he'll be promoted back there.
Also set largely in France, Mark Burnell's latest thriller, 'The Third Woman'
(HarperCollins £12.99) once again stars secret agent Stephanie Patrick to
whom we were introduced in his ground-breaking first book, 'The Rhythm
Section'. Stephanie is a terrific character, an icy hired assassin who was
recruited into a maverick section of the secret service after her family
were wiped out in a plane accident and has survived by taking on other
identities. But just as Stephanie begins to tire of contract killing and
wants out, she is betrayed by an unknown enemy and lured to Paris where she
narrowly escapes being killed by a bomb blast. Burnell has many strengths
and there is something for everyone here: a fast-moving, well-written
action plot with a gratifying number of twists and surprises; witty
dialogue; insights into the real world of ruthless big business where
information is the most valuable commodity brokered, and some truly
thrilling moments.The author is less known than he deserves to be but his
creation Stephanie will soon be starring in a series of films to be made
around her.
Carla McKay has been a fiction reviewer for over 15 years for the Daily Mail and this year has persuaded
them to let her do a crime column of reviews of recent crime fiction once every two months or so.