Review of Jill Paton Walsh's The Late Scholar

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh

First off, I should say that Dorothy L. Sayers is my all-time favorite mystery writer and her Gaudy Night, set at Oxford University, is the one mystery that I re-read regularly. Despite those things, I don't object to the idea of someone else coming along and continuing the story of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, or of setting one of those continuations at Oxford, which Sayers brought so powerfully to life in Gaudy Night.

The Trustees of Dorothy L. Sayers's estate gave permission to Jill Paton Walsh to continue the Wimsey/Vale series, and The Late Scholar (Minotaur Books, June 17, 2014) is the fourth book she's published in the series since 1998. Maybe it's because Paton Walsh is herself a graduate of Oxford University that I found this book to be the most assured of all of her continuation books.  But more than that, this book is heartfelt and has a comfortable feeling. Those may be odd adjectives to apply to a murder mystery, but they really do apply here.

Lord Peter, who is now the Duke of Denver, is by hereditary gift the Visitor of the college of St. Severin's at Oxford. He is a Balliol College (at Oxford) man himself, and his wife, mystery writer Harriet Vane, is a graduate of Oxford's (fictional) Shrewsbury College. When Peter is called upon as Visitor to settle a dispute over whether St. Severin's should sell a manuscript and buy land with the proceeds, he and Harriet use this as a good excuse to spend some time at their alma mater.

One of the initially troubling aspects of St. Severin's calling on Peter to step in is that the voting about the matter is deadlocked because the college's Warden has gone missing. Peter learns that there have been other attacks on college dons with voting rights on the issue––and soon there are still more. (It reminded me of that great title, Landscape with Dead Dons, from Robert Robinson (1956).) Clearly, some sleuthing is in order and that's what Peter, Harriet and Peter's man Bunter set out to do.

The investigation is carried out in that good, old-fashioned Golden Age tradition of the "fair play" mystery novel. Pay close attention and you can put the clues together along with the detective.  Meanwhile, though, you will also get to listen in on learned academic discussions about the manuscript; experience dinner at the college's high table; visit with Harriet's eccentric old colleagues at Shrewsbury College, whom you will remember from Gaudy Night; enjoy a couple of river walks and views out over Oxford's famous dreaming spires; and even spend a little time with Peter's delightfully dotty old mother.

It's the pleasure of a fair play mystery and of feeling at home again in Lord Peter and Harriet's Oxford that made this such a comfortable read. And heartfelt not only because Paton Walsh has such respect for Lord Peter (whom she has called "the best company who has ever lived in my inner world"), but because she, like Dorothy L. Sayers, portrays murder as a tragedy and a waste, and its perpetrator as a damaged person who has lost a moral compass.

Purists might find it annoying that Paton Walsh writes with a more modern sensibility, by which I mean that even if Sayers had written a Wimsey/Vane book in the 1950s, when this one is set, she almost certainly wouldn't have included a reference to the couple spending a romantic afternoon in bed, and she wouldn't have had Bunter sitting down at the table with Peter and Harriet. But I'm not a purist and I'm not bothered by these scenes, which are a very minor part of the novel anyway.

I do have some small quibbles. There is a large group of college fellows who are part of the plot and it isn't always easy to keep them straight or remember who is on which side of the manuscript controversy. Bunter isn't as much a part of the detection work as in the Sayers books, and I felt his relative absence. The poetry-quoting and learned banter between Peter and Harriet felt less natural and lively than it does in the Sayers books. But I didn't find these quibbles detracted much from the pleasure of the book.

Is this as good a read as a Dorothy L. Sayers original in the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane series?  I'd say certainly not as good as Strong Poison, Gaudy Night or Busman's Honeymoon, but better than Have His Carcase. But since we're not ever going to get more Dorothy L. Sayers books, I'm happy to have Jill Paton Walsh's books. And this is the best of them so far.

Note: I received an advance reviewing copy of this book. Versions of this review may appear on other reviewing sites under my usernames there.

Review of Brian McGilloway's Borderlands, the First Inspector Devlin Mystery

Borderlands, by Brian McGilloway (Minotaur, 2008)

Brian McGilloway is the author of two popular series of police procedurals set in the nebulous and historically bitterly-contested borderlands between the two Irelands. This is a confusing area for residents and police alike; utilities and services may be provided and billed to the same house from different countries. Borderlands: An Inspector Devlin Mystery is the first novel in McGilloway's Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin series. Born and raised in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the author is very familiar with the smoldering tensions and level of cooperation required to police the border between the two Irelands.

When the body of 15-year-old Angela Cashell is found on the border between counties Tyrone and Donegal a week before Christmas, wearing nothing but an expensive ring and her panties, put back on inside out after her death, Devlin is assigned the case despite the fact that his counterpart, Jim Hendry of the Northern Ireland Police force, has had more experience with murders. This is the first murder in tiny Lifford since 1883, except for assassinations during "The Troubles." But the girl's family lives in Donegal, so Devlin, father of two younger children, can look forward to a grim holiday.

Angela's father, Johnny Cashell, is a pugnacious and unpopular character, well-known to the police. He is certain that one of the Travellers, gypsies camped near town, killed his daughter, and he is determined to settle it his own way. A few days later, Cashell is arrested across the border for attempted murder. He and his four brothers had gone into the Travelers' camp with cans of gasoline and set fire to the caravans. The resulting fracas left all the brothers injured––one had his ear bitten off by an outraged Traveller woman––but the young man suspected of murdering Angela scuttled away unharmed.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve morning, Devlin is called out to the scene of another murder. Young Terry Doyle, a college student, has been found shot to death in his burning car. Curiously, a faded photograph of a woman and two children found nearby is identical to one found near Angela's body. The woman in the photograph appears to be wearing the ring later found on Angela's hand. As far as could be determined, the two victims were not related and had no acquaintances in common. Under pressure from the media and his superiors, Devlin's boss, Superintendent Olly "Elvis" Costello, assigns Sergeant Caroline Williams and recently transferred Officer Jason Holmes to help Devlin with solving the deaths.

Events pile upon each other quickly in this story, interspersed with personal incidents in the lives of the detectives, to a harrowing if somewhat unlikely conclusion. The police work was believable, and the difficulty of investigation on a border that has barely had time to cool added an interesting fillip to the story.

This first-person-narrated story was shortlisted for CWA's New Blood Dagger Award in 2007. Devlin is a likable protagonist, with enough flaws and home problems to keep him interesting. A sense of how fragile the peace between the Irelands remains and how slow old prejudices are to die pervades the novel. It was the first Inspector Devlin book I have read, but I have already ordered Gallows Lane, the second in a series of five books so far.

McGilloway's other series features another police officer, Lucy Black. The first Lucy Black novel, Little Girl Lost, had a very unusual and haunting plot that brought me back for more from the author. He is releasing the second as a serial; readers can buy it in pieces. This technique doesn't work for me, but some readers seem to enjoy it and have the patience to wait for the conclusion of their mysteries. While these bracketing series generally highlight the cooperation between police services on either side of the border, other characters may not be so willing to bury the hatchet.

BBC Photo

The Provos are apparently still a power in the area, and crossing them can be dangerous for the police on either side. McGilloway grew up near the border in Londonderry, where a bomb left by a self-proclaimed IRA member took out a hotel lobby just a couple of weeks ago. Old grudges die very slowly on the border, which adds some interesting twists to these engaging procedurals.