About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

THE LATE SCHOLAR
by Jill Paton Walsh
Minotaur Books, June 2014
368 pages
$25.95
ISBN: 1250032792


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The College of St Severin's, Oxford is in a serious financial bind. Unless massive reductions are made, the only hope the college has to save itself is to sell a valuable manuscript which may well have been owned by King Alfred. But the college masters are split over the sale. The manuscript was bequeathed to the college and many feel that it must not be sold no matter what. On the other hand, the opportunity seems to exist for the college to sell the manuscript, then buy a parcel of land that is ripe for development thereby turning a neat profit for the college. The problem is, each vote on the matter has ended as a deadlock. Though set in the 1950s, the plot line of an academic institution being strapped for money is, unfortunately, quite relevant today, thus supplying the perfect backdrop for academic mystery. Although Lord Peter Wimsey was called to St Severin's to help resolve the conflict over the sale, he soon gets drawn into the investigation of a series of murders-each quite possibly motivated by the need to tip the scales before the next vote.

THE LATE SCHOLAR is the fourth book Jill Paton Walsh has written using the characters Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. How readers receive this book may depend more on their ability to appreciate Walsh's stories without getting bogged down with comparisons to Sayers' work. Each of the four books Walsh has written featuring Sayers' characters has moved further from Sayers' work. For the first one, Walsh completed a manuscript that Sayers had begun, and the next two were written based on Sayers' notes, THE LATE SCHOLAR is Walsh's first solo flight with Sayers' characters. I enjoyed the book quite a lot. However, it is quite different in feel and tone from Sayers' books. Part of this comes about because Walsh is writing historical fiction while Sayers was writing about her contemporary scene. Writing about things set in the past is much different from looking around you and writing about what is going on. It changes the author's perspective. The second way this is different from the Sayers books is that Walsh allows St Severin's and Oxford to be a main characters, almost overshadowing both the characters and the plot. Sayers' books were all about the characters.

The plot however, is designed to delight devotees of Sayers. There is a substantial body count in THE LATE SCHOLAR and although we as readers don't witness any of these deaths first hand we do get the lowdown on how they were committed. Each and every one of the murders was modeled on a plot from one of Harriet's books, which she has written based on Peter's cases. Readers will quickly recognize those plots from Sayers' work. Walsh has a little fun with this, poking a bit of fun at some murder plots gone wrong.

If readers are willing to take a step back and not get too caught up in the Sayers aura, and allow themselves to enjoy this book on its own merits, I believe most will be pleased.

§ Caryn St.Clair resides in University City, Missouri and is a former elementary school media specialist, President of the Parks Commission and a docent at the St.Louis Zoo.

Reviewed by Caryn St Clair, August 2014

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]