I wonder what my reaction to inheriting a grand estate would be. Would I prefer my own cozy home. That is how the unexpected 12th Earl of Ellesmere and his wife felt. Percy Spender was willing to spend a brief time in the cold drafty yet elegant almost palace, then they wanted to sell it and get on with life. Who wants to eat cold food for the rest of their lives? All of Percy's family have gathered at Chetton Hall to spend time together and to celebrate Percy's sixtieth birthday. Many of the family members are seeing this as a windfall that can enrich all their lives if handled correctly. But someone puts a period to Percy's existence and hordes of police and reporters descend on the estate to turn every bodies life inside out.Complicating matters is the fact that Percy's heir is currently in lockup doing time because he was caught for the umpteenth time illegally emptying a lorry full of TV's. due out shortly he is sprung to help the police in their inquiries in a different fashion.Robert Barnard makes all this seem possible, real and humorous. I like to keep some of his books close at hand for a guaranteed enjoyable read.
This is a nice, solid British mystery, set in a Stately Home but with an unusual cast of characters for one of those (odd things happen when distant relatives inherit). It's full of the kind of dry wit that's perhaps not to everyone's taste (but definitely to mine), and also of the kind of sometimes-bitter class conflict that you don't really get in American mysteries (because Americans don't believe that class exists).I was sorry to learn, upon looking up the author, that he passed away just last month. But I also learned that he left behind something like 100 other books to read, and that's a fine way for a reader to honor an author, isn't it?
