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Murder at Shots Hall |
Author: Maureen Sarsfield
Published: 2003-06 |
List price: $14.95
Our price: $11.66
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As of: December 01st, 2008 12:33:04 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Wholly unsatisfying!
I made myself wait two days before writing this review hoping that I would be able to view this book in a better light but it is just not going to happen. I had originally read the only other review for Murder at Shots Hall before purchasing it and expected that it would be just the perfect cozy mystery which I love so much. I find that I am going in the polar opposite direction from the other reviewer.
This book was originally published as Green December Fills the Graveyard but the title has been changed by Rue Morgue Vintage Press to better define the book within the mystery genre. (For anyone interested in the second Sarsfield mystery it was published as A Dinner for None in Britain and as A Party for Lawty in the U.S. Rue Morgue has retitled that selection as Murder at Beechlands. Just a little information so you will not accidently buy the same book multiple times.)
I did not like this book. I am very irritated with myself because I even finished it but I wanted to see if I had spotted the murderer. I'm also sorry to say that I had but not the reasoning behind that character being guilty. I thought I would scream if I read one more time that Flik was lovely, just lovely, so lovely, really lovely, a lovely woman. Why was she lovely? Surely the author saw something in her imagination which made Flik lovely. Her hair, her eyes, her skin, her figure, her hands, her feet??? What, what, what??? We are just told ad nauseam how lovely she is. And that every man "fell" for her. Once again, why? This story all takes place over a very short time, a matter of days, and every single night the fog came down so that no movement could be seen, so thick that it actually dripped off people. This village was six miles from the sea and yet the salt in the fog stung skin and eyes. Really? Now that's a long way for salt spray to travel. But of course I'm forgetting. Every night these poor people had to endure gale force winds (just to make it more interesting).
This book is so full of stupidity that I could spend all day trying to relate it all. Several examples: (1) The SCOTLAND YARD INSPECTOR told the constable left on the premesis to take his boots off and walk around outside in his socks at about 2:00 am (in the mud, rain and howling wind) so that he would not wake Flik up, she needed her rest! (2)The doctor (who had lived within a three mile radius of Flik for many years but had never met her until the first murder) actually almost balked against going to check up on a newborn infant whose parents thought he was dying because he wanted to go check up on Flik. (3)A broom comes flying out of the air and manages to hit a police constable smack on the head while he is wallowing in the mud (again during all that howling wind and rain) in the middle of the night, in the middle of a muddy road but nobody can figure out where the broom came from and don't even really believe that it happened. I'm telling you, my list could just go on and on.
When push came to shove, Flik was hiding two "dreadful" secrets which she could never allow to be revealed and so was willing to go to prison for murders she had not committed. When the secrets were revealed they were pure piffle! Nobody cared. It's for sure that I didn't.
Detective Sergeant Arnoldson was a truly abhorrent character. So much so that it made no sense for the powers-that-be to allow him to stay on the police force. He had propositioned Flik several years previously for "special favors" after he rescued her from her burning bedroom after a bomb struck Shots Hall during an air raid. (He spotted a military man's mess kit beneath her bed.) She had turned him down and he was resentful and liked to gossip about her and insinuate that she was not a "nice" lady. I got sick and tired of hearing about his red, sweaty face and his wet lips. He also broke the law in his treatment of Flik during the murder investigation and yet his superiors put up with him. Once again, my perennial question is WHY?
Well, now I've vented my spleen and I feel somewhat better. If you still want to buy this book after reading my rants, go right ahead. I bought the book based on one 5 star rating. Now you have an entirely different assessment. Happy decision making!
 A fascinating read from an underrated author
Maureen Sarsfield published three novels, two of them mysteries featuring Lane Parry, an Inspector with Scotland Yard, in the 1940's. Both were reprinted in the United States, which was fairly notable for the time. Then Sarsfield disappeared from the public eye, until the Rue Morgue Press decided to bring them her books back to the mystery reading audience.Murder at Shots Hall introduces the reader to Inspector Lane Parry, who is called upon when there is a murder in Shotshall, which is the name of both the village and its manor house. We are introduced to the lovely and inscrutable Flikka Ashley, who is living at Shots Hall with her down-to-earth Aunt Bee Chattock. When their housekeeper Molly Pritchard is found poisoned, the horrible Detective Sergeant Arnoldson immediately assumes that Flik is the murderess. Fortunately for Flik, there are several gentlemen in the village who worship her from afar, which comes in very handy when the bodies start piling up and the evidence points to her as the probable suspect. The village doctor, Abbot, is one of her admirers, and knocks himself out seeing to her safety even as his duties exhaust him. There is still a doubt in his mind, which drives him wild: "Abbot said nothing, thinking she was all dressed up int hat lovely wool dress not to be grilled but to kill. It was the color of her hair, and very tight in the waist, and plain. She'd a fancy for Parry, all right, and Parry, might the devil take him, wouldn't hesitate to hang her if needs be. Then, less unjustly, he decided it was all pretty bloody for Parry, unless he was unmoved by her loveliness, which seemed impossible, even for a policeman." The tone of Murder at Shots Hall is what sets it apart from so many of today's stories. It is a story Hitchcock would have loved...all moody and surreal. The characters, who are well drawn and each desperate in their own right, are constantly having to battle wretched weather to get where they are going, which is usually to the scene of another murder. Nothing is what it seems, and the ending is delightfully twisted. But when one thinks about it, it all makes perfect sense. Those are the elements of a wonderful cozy. Too bad Sarsfield didn't write more...she was definitely on a par with Agatha Christie. Thanks to the Rue Morgue Press for resurrecting this little gem. A fascinating read from an underrated author. Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer
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