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Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton is indeed Lady of the Manor House in Sitting Marsh, a coastal town in England. Finances are tight, with World War II raging along with the problems caused by Lady Elizabeth's ex-husband having gambled away the family fortune. She is reduced to a staff of two -- her irascible but likable housekeeper/cook, Violet, and her senile butler, Martin, augmented by the part time assistance of Polly, a girl of 15, enamored of one of the American airmen (to whom she's posing as 20) billeted at Manor House. There is considerable tension between the American airmen, magnets for the local young ladies, and their British counterparts. To ease the tensions, Lady Elizabeth decides to sponsor a cricket match, an idea so preposterously stupid, it could be matched only by the introduction of the Edsel and the "New" Coke. She somehow believes that an hour's instruction will be enough for the Yanks to familiarize themselves with this almost incomprehensible sport. The match has little relation to the plot and is inserted apparently to show how different the English language is to Americans and Brits. After the church bells ring at 3:00 a.m. -- the signal for a German invasion that does not materialize -- Lady Elizabeth and Major Earl Monroe (chief of the billeted airmen) discover in the belfry the body of an American airman, who had just been involved in a barroom brawl. Major Monroe enlists Lady Elizabeth in the investigation, reasoning that villagers will speak more freely to her than to members of the American military. Throughout the book, she nurtures what can best be described as a "crush" on the major, although he has told her that he has a wife and two children at home. Until the murder, Violet had been serving sumptuous breakfasts (eggs, bacon, etc.) despite the strict food rationing in effect. After the murder, the luxuries disappear, and Lady Elizabeth realizes that Violet has been dealing in the black market and that the black market is somehow related to the death of the airman. The book is uneven. Parts (the cricket lesson, for example) are very funny. Other parts (especially the incessant pining for Major Monroe) are tedious. The ending turns on something improbable that an observant Lady Elizabeth should have recognized long before she does.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, March 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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