The Once and Future Con by
Peter Guttridge
pbk out June 00
(Headline)
at £5.99
It is always a delight to pick up a new book by Guttridge. He has a thoroughly original style, fast-paced and with a joke in almost every line. I have no idea how he manages it, but every time a new Guttridge book appears I have to get a copy.
This novel is typical of Guttridge at his best. It begins with his hero, Nick Madrid, at a reunion of his old college at Oxford. There he meets Faye, an old flame; Genevra, a woman he'd like to have as a new flame; her brother Rex Wynn; a man he cordially detested when he was at college and still does now, Jonathan Askwith; and a dull after-dinner speaker, the recently ennobled Lord Williamson. The meal seems quite normal. Madrid is patronised and insulted by everyone, especially Askwith, and retires early, only to hear later that Askwith has died, drunk, drowning in his own vomit.
Madrid believes that this was, as the Coroner considered, a sad accident, but in any case his attention in distracted because he is asked by his old flame to visit and help them publicise a new discovery: they think that they have discovered King Arthur's grave site. And since they are creating the Avalon Theme Park, they think this could be a great money-spinner. As Madrid is told, the heritage industry brings in plenty of cash. Not surprisingly he is dubious.
But when he visits, ostensibly searching for Camelot, Madrid discovers that incest, adultery and murder weren't restricted to Arthurian legends. They can exist even in present day England. And with millennial madness breaking out over the West Country, Madrid is worried. Especially when he becomes convinced that a serial killer is on the loose.
Guttridge's humour hauls you through the story, but you shouldn't think this is merely an amusing little story of mayhem and lunacy. It's a well crafted and intriguing murder mystery, a story which keeps you guessing up to the last few pages.
But I like it for the laughs.
(
Michael Jecks
- author of the highly acclaimed Furnshill & Puttock series)
The Once and Future Con by
Peter Guttridge