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Publisher:
Robert Hale |
Release
Date: January 2004 |
ISBN:
0709075537 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Hardback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Historical Crime [1893 Warwickshire, UK] |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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The
Ancaster Demons
By Norman Russell
There
is something very special about Norman Russell. He seems to delight
in resurrecting out-of-fashion sub-genres, dusting them off, and
presenting them as something fresh and new. He has given us gothic
tales of haunted governesses, strange goings-on in hidden villages
and in his last book a Boy's Own spy yarn that almost had Sherlock
Holmes looming out of the London fog. This time he dishes up a cathedral
town a la Anthony Trollope with a slightly M R James spicing and
plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor. Highly-strung Prebendary Nicholas
Arkwright has long nurtured a seething hatred for Dean Girdlestone.
Even at the tender age of fourteen he tried to kill him, but ended
up saving his life instead. The Dean has taken the woman he loves,
the job he desires and is now trying to spoil the cathedral itself
– he has got to go. But when he is found dead during the Ancaster
Revel, who has actually committed the crime?
With tremendous gusto
Russell adds the amiable duo of Inspector Jackson and Sergeant Bottomley
to another enjoyable yarn. There is the inevitable fresh young miss
in peril, the slightly fantastic ambiance of the cathedral town
and the ruthless politicking of the higher clergy, not to mention
those “demons” on the cathedral roof. I didn’t
find the killer difficult to unmask but with so much else going
on it didn’t matter as much as it might have in less practised
hands. I do hope Norman Russell goes on swimming against the tide
and confecting these gothic treats.
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