Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson

The sixteenth book in the Dandy Gilver historical mystery series by Catriona McPherson is scheduled for release in the UK on 2 May 2024 and in the US on 3 September 2024. I had the great good fortune to receive an advance copy of the story so I don’t have to wait until September.

The series began shortly after the end of World War I in 1922, with Dandy the epitome of a bored housewife, and has progressed chronologically through the social and economic upheaval of the interwar years. The Witching Hour (Hodder & Stoughton/Mobius) takes place in spring of 1939, with a second war imminent, to the great fear of Dandy whose two sons are now the right age to be called up.

Hugh Gilver’s 60^th birthday was being observed with all the pomp it deserved. The family and close friends were gathered for an enormous feast and the family cook had done herself proud. Of especial interest to Dandy is the guest her younger son had invited. To all appearances Dandy was to acquire a second daughter-in-law. Dandy’s close friend Daisy Esslemont was there alone, her husband Silas had pleaded a previous unbreakable engagement, and Daisy was peeved about it. Silas has a long history of philandering and Daisy has tolerated much from her sadly deficient husband.

In the night the telephone unexpectedly rang. The police in a remote village are looking for Daisy. Silas has been found dead, and they think Daisy has killed him. Dandy is happy to advise them Daisy was sound asleep in Dandy’s guest bedroom. But on inquiry, Dandy learns both Daisy and Dandy’s automobile are gone. She and Alec Osborne, Dandy’s investigative partner, tear off to the village where Silas was found and hope that Daisy is not there.

The village turns out to be an odd little place with hints of otherworldliness and witchcraft. No one is especially helpful but Dandy is desperate to clear Daisy and Alec, who had his own reasons for disliking Silas, is up for the challenge.

I am once again reminded that this series is not cozy, despite blurbs that say otherwise. Inevitably there are serious underlying issues at play in each book, even if perhaps the overall premise is lighthearted and improbable. The UK is facing the advent of war once again, and this time Dandy knows she may lose her sons. The memory of the earlier war is all too clear and her entire generation is devastated at the thought of a repetition. Dandy also has the opportunity to review her very fortunate marriage compared to that of her friend Daisy. While Hugh is boring, he is also kind and would never humiliate her the way Silas mistreated Daisy. The contrast emphasizes how little freedom women had then to improve their circumstances. A bad marriage was something to be borne, not discarded.

The resolution was entirely reasonable, considering the life that Silas led, but I found the fact so many others suffered from his thoughtlessness deeply sad.

For fans of social history the bits about proper dinner table and drawing room behavior are fascinating. The conversation between Dandy and Hugh about their potential new daughter-in-law reveal the conventions about appropriate marriages in the landed gentry and just how much those conventions had changed.

A fine addition to a solid historical series. Recommended.

 

 

·         Publisher: ‎Mobius (September 3, 2024)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1399720392

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1399720397

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4dfrw6s

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: Robbed Blind by Roy Hart

Between 1987 and 1994 Roy Hart, a British avionics engineer, wrote nine police procedurals fronted by Detective Superintendent Douglas Roper of the Dorset County Criminal Investigation Department on the southern coast of England. In line with the procedural that was popular in the 1980s, they are all set in villages and the plots all focus on the investigation rather than the psychology of the crime. While there are quirky characters, they take a back seat to the detailed and systematic description of police activities in collecting and sifting clues to find the culprit. The fifth in the series Robbed Blind (Macmillan London, 1990) is a good example.

The night of Good Friday in the village of Little Crow Stella Pumfrey was found dead at the foot of the stairs in her home. Her shoe caught in the carpet on the landing bore mute testimony to an accidental fall that caused Stella’s head to collide with ferocity against the newel post. The post-mortem, though, showed the damage to Stella’s skull could not have been caused by the fall.

By the time the police received the autopsy report recommending further investigation, the crime scene had been thoroughly contaminated, much to Roper’s frustration. Initial inquiries reveal that Stella had money and her husband and her sister were in line to inherit it. Neither of them was on good terms with the victim. Then there was the lover rumored to be in the background. But perhaps it was not personal at all: an exquisite and valuable pair of earrings is missing. Could she have been surprised by the burglar that was known to be in the neighborhood? As Roper talks to Stella’s family and friends, he finds no shortage of possible scenarios and people with adverse interests to Stella’s.

This series seems to have flown under the radar in the U.S. The first two titles were not published here, and none of them seem to have been reprinted after the initial hardback and paperback issue. Roper isn’t given much of a back story, although there is some information about him, and perhaps he wasn’t vivid enough to capture lasting interest. A review from Publishers Weekly said he lacked the edge of a Sherlock Holmes, although both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus spoke highly of the series. While nine books is a respectable run, timing probably also affected its popularity, as reading tastes were moving towards gritty, violent crime fiction with lots of action.

I found this series entry a solid, capable detective story with complex plotting, plenty of red herrings, and plausible suspects. Recommended for fans of police procedurals and admirers of traditional mysteries.

 

·         Publisher: ‎St Martins Press; First Edition (January 1, 1990)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎206 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0312044143

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0312044145

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/44b3G80 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.