Debts of Dishonour by
Jill Paton Walsh
hbk out February 06
Published by Hodder
at £18.99
Jill Paton Walsh is a distinguished author with a number of literary novels to her
credit, as well as children's books. One was shortlisted for the Booker and a previous
crime novel in this present series was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.
The author once completed an unfinished novel by Dorothy L Sayers and obviously
has been markedly influenced by Sayer's work, which is evident in this book. Her
sleuth is Imogen Quy, a difficult name to pronounce, who is both a Fellow of St Agnes
College, Cambridge and its resident nurse – though she seems to get a great deal of
time off to both investigate crimes and to sort out college calamities!
One such calamity is the apparent loss of eighteen million pounds, when a rogue
Bursar invests most of college's assets into a collapsing financial empire, headed by an
undistinguished former student, Sir Julius Farran. He became a multi-millionaire by
ruthless asset-stripping, but when his body is found at the foot of a cliff near an
expensive drying-out clinic, his son-in-law takes over the firm, obnoxious bully that
he is - but soon ends up dead, battered to death. There are various emotional and
sexual machinations between Julius's widow, Imogen's former lover Andrew, Julius's
glamorous secretary and his daughter Rowena, which Imogen eventually pieces
together.
This is a classical English who-dunnit, with echoes of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet
Vane. The cast and setting are 'posh' with millionaires, college Masters, Sirs and
Lords keeping the kitchen sink at bay and the somewhat improbable plot is mainly
concerned with dirty work in the boardroom.
Impeccably written, it is a good 'golden age' read, though I see little about it to make
this one Booker material.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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Debts of Dishonour by
Jill Paton Walsh
