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Cambridge author Jill Paton Walsh finally brings Nurse Imogen Quy back to St Agatha's College, Cambridge, where she quickly gets embroiled in the financial problems besetting the school. Even though Imogen has been invisible to us for the last 10 years, she is still only 35 years old. Quy is asked to dine at the high table because a special guest is coming to dinner. The guest is Sir Julius Farran, an alumnus of the College, who has been nicknamed 'The Takeover King.' He is very wealthy but not very well liked, since he buys out small businesses and usually then just subsumes them into one of his larger ventures, leaving lots of people out of work. The idea, of course, is to try to inveigle Sir Julius into donating money to his old college. Imogen is being used as bait. Farran is much taken with Imogen and asks her to join his company, but she politely declines. Her ex-lover, economist Andrew Duncombe, implores her to try to get him back on the faculty of St. Agatha's. He has been working for Sir Julius for a year and is disillusioned with big business. There's no future for him anyway. Farran's heir apparent is his son-in-law, Max. Sir Julius has been drinking heavily. Imogen suggests that he should take better care of himself, so he checks into a posh private sanatorium. When Sir Julius falls off a cliff near the substance abuse clinic, in an apparent accident, Max becomes head of the company. The auditors come in, Max is murdered, and the comptroller of the college disappears leaving a large gap in the school's endowment. Imogen investigates. If you like gentle, well-written old-fashioned English mysteries, this one is right up your alley. It's a country house riddle in an academic setting.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, February 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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