Tangled Web UK Review September 2007
The Death of Corinne (Country House Crime) by
R T. Raichev
hbk out August 07
Published by Constable Robinson
at £18.99
Bulgarian–born R. T. Raichev has produced the perfect pastiche of a golden-
age country house murder mystery setting. There's a Lady with a butler; she
has a nephew called Peverel de Broke (wonderful!); she herself has a
vocabulary and mannerisms firmly rooted in the 20s – a classic Bright Young
Thing grown old. Why, she even says "gel" for "girl". And to round it off nicely,
there is also a Major. This is Lady Grylls' other nephew, Hugh Payne, who
with his mystery-writer wife Antonia Darcy is staying with Lady G. as she
expects a visit from her god-daughter Corinne Coreille.
Corinne is a chanteuse of some renown, a latter-day Piaf without the drugs
and marital problems. With, however, problems of a different sort, as is
indicated by the title. She has been receiving death-threats, and even before
her arrival an atmosphere of Grand Guignol rapidly descends upon the
country house as her godmother outlines the bizarre situation the singer is in.
She is travelling with the Svengali-like figure of Maître Maginot (who is a
woman, not a man), and is being stalked by the writer of the death-threats.
This is one Mrs. Eleanor Merchant, whose son Griff, besotted with Coreille,
committed suicide while listening to one of her recordings. Phew! That's
enough to send anybody round the bend - and Mrs. Merchant is well and truly
round the bend, what little sanity she ever had rapidly disintegrating.
This odd but strangely compelling story is the 2nd book in a series; the Major
and his mystery writing wife are pleasingly unobtrusive amateur detectives.
Let's hope for more!
(
Judith Rhodes
)
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