Tangled Web UK Review September 2000
Where Roses Fade by
Andrew Taylor
hbk out June 00
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
at £16.99
This is the fifth ‘Lydmouth Mystery’, a classic crime story set in a small town somewhere along the Severn estuary in Gloucestershire – the author lives in nearby Forest of Dean. The year is not stated, but must be around the early ’fifties and the writer captures both the time and place admirably. In fact, this is a most satisfying read, especially to those who liked the old ’golden age’ books, set amongst ordinary people in ordinary towns. A local detective inspector is having a furtive affair with a journalist, when a promiscuous waitress is found drowned in the river. A number of the town worthies, from estate agent to police superintendent, seem hell-bent on sweeping the death under the carpet and our inspector gets himself very unpopular for rocking the communal boat, when the town idiot is being framed for the death.
The writing quality is excellent and I actually slowed down my reading as I went, to make the book last longer! The author captures the rather colourless post-war period perfectly, with ration books, everyone smoking like chimneys and ’going to the pictures’ and he reveals superficial morality hiding some nasty, prurient habits in small-town England. The characters are realistic and Andrew Taylor portrays the rain-soaked and drab surroundings most evocatively. The book is a despair for a reviewer, as there is virtually nothing to nit-pick; all I could find was that a new Riley RMF inexplicably becomes a Wolseley on one page. Apart from that great sin, this is a really excellent read and shows up many more trendy books as shoddy merchandise.
(
Bernard Knight
- Author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series set in Medieval Devon)
