A Death in the Family by
Hazel Holt
hbk out August 06
Published by Allison Busby
at £18.99
Another delightful saga from 'The Queen of the Cosies', this one relates
the fate of one Bernard Prior, a distant cousin of Sheila Mallory, the
inquisitive widow who between jam-making and walking the dog, always
manages to become involved in murders in or around her small home-
town in North Devon.
Bernard is a retired headmaster from Bristol, a thick-skinned, abrasive
character who is filling his golden years with tracing the family history of
the Priors. Unfortunately, he is driving the rest of this family crazy with
his obsessional demands for information and documentation, descending
upon them unannounced and pestering them repeatedly. He has
dragooned his pale, submissive wife Janet into acting as his records clerk
as he invades his relatives' privacy with lap-top and notebooks. Bernard
has even rented a local cottage while he 'does' this area.
The tales relates the various news he worms out of them, some of which
the family would much prefer to be kept under wraps. Sheila takes pity on
poor Janet and one evening invites her to supper. On driving back to the
cottage they find Bernard, sitting dead in his armchair, with severe head
injuries – but, ah-ha, things are not what they seem!
As with many of Hazel's books, the plots are not the whole story,
intriguing though they are. It is her fluent and persuasive writing that
make the such a delight, peppered with regular jibes at political
correctness, the pomposity of minor officials and the constant tweaking
of Establishment tails. As well as being a crime mystery, you can learn
things about dog care, cat feeding, preserving fruit and a host of
comfortable village activities. She has marvellous eye for people, such as
the bossy woman who inevitably dominates every church hall committee.
For the many readers who want to avoid the foul language, sadistic
behaviour and depressing 'psychological' plots of so much modern
fiction, a new Hazel Holt is always a blessed relief!
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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A Death in the Family by
Hazel Holt
