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Being Lady of the Manor would be challenging at the best of times. For Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton, these are the worst of times. Her wastrel husband absconded with what was left of her fortune, England is in the middle of World War II, and the tiny hamlet of Sitting Marsh, on the sea coast, is vulnerable to German attack. The only financial support Lady Elizabeth realizes is from renting cottages on her estate. To her dismay, on a mission to collect the rent from artist Basil Thorncroft, she finds his body, Thorncroft having been murdered. Lady Elizabeth is loath to leave the investigation in the hands of the two bumbling constables, called back to service because all the able bodied men are in the armed forces. What is most troubling to the community is the rumor that there is a spy in their midst. Could it be the dashing gentleman who knocked the sister of Lady Elizabeth's maid into a ditch with his spiffy car and is now courting her and asking countless probing questions about the American base in the area? Could it be the bird watcher, seen on the cliff pointing field glasses at the sea? Could it be the man who says that he is in town scouting for a location to build a munitions factory? Kingsbury cleverly makes the case for each one being the culprit. Part of Lady Elizabeth's manor is given over to billets for American Air Force officers. Lady Elizabeth has a huge crush on Major Earl Monroe, leader of the forces. He comes almost nightly for a sherry and a chat and would have to be thick as a slab of concrete not to realize her feelings for him. FAR too much of the book is given over to Lady Elizabeth's mooning over the married (though unhappily married) major. Kingsbury lightly spoofs homeland preparedness. Rita Crumm, who has organized the Housewives League, a group of local women over whom she tyrannizes, takes every opportunity to remind Lady Elizabeth of her origins as the daughter of a kitchen maid. Rita has her own dreams of glory. She and her women will capture the spy, and she will be awarded a medal by Winston Churchill. Her whipping the reluctant women into shape is hilarious as she makes them hide behind bushes in the wet ground and drill in the town square. One of the women wails, "I can't see us stopping them anyhow when they've got bayonets and rifles and all we've got is a bunch of saucepans." The investigation, which ends with Lady Elizabeth finding the spy/murderer, is mostly an excuse to parade Kingsbury's cast of supporting characters, including Violet, her acerbic cook/housekeeper, and Martin, the senile butler, sure that Lady Elizabeth's long dead father is in the drawing room, upset at her ways. For those of us who grew up during World War II, Paint by Murder is a reminder of just what we went through.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, September 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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