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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
It was nice and quite funny, but a bit slow at times.
A really good murder mystery from the Golden Age (I really am in the mood for this sort of thing at the moment!) even if I didn't want the culprit to be the culprit if you know what I mean! But yes - definitely in the vein of the Sayers and Christies etc and like Gaudy Night set in an Oxford women's college. I think I like the Sayers more - but that's because I'm more invested in the characters in that I think. Still definitely deserving of it's re-print - and I'll be looking out for the other one by Mavis Doriel Hay that the British Library has bought out.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I never read anything by Mavis Doriel Hay. I also don’t really read books written in the 1930s, for some odd reason. This was a really fun, girl power detective. It isn’t bloody, it isn’t boring, it’s just a more YA type of detective. I really recommend it if you are just starting out on the detectives! Really, one of my favourite detectives I have read thus far!
Four girls meet on a cold (and rainy?) night to form the Lode League, one devoted to cursing the college's bursar, a woman who seems dedicated to making their lives miserable. Well, before they can even get started, the bursar's boat floats by... with her dead body inside.
The girls are immediately drawn to finding out who hated the bursar so much that this was the end result. Some hilarity ensues along with some good character development. A little dated but still a book worth reading.
The girls are immediately drawn to finding out who hated the bursar so much that this was the end result. Some hilarity ensues along with some good character development. A little dated but still a book worth reading.
This is another re-released British Library Crime Classic. Death on the Cherwell involves a group of young women, students at an Oxford Women's College, who have formed a secret "club" or group, mainly it seems for the purpose of complaining about the college bursar, Miss Denning. The girls find the bursar dead, at first apparently drowned, but very quickly found to be murdered. They join in investigating the murder with Detective Inspector Wythe. The story ebbs and flows, there are parts that are very good, particularly after the niece arrives and some of the conversational pieces are excellent. Fans of college based mysteries will in particular enjoy this. I liked it but not as much as the John Bude books, also released as part of this set by the British Library.
Somehow the characters of the british golden crime era catch my interest. These characters her however did. I liked the mystery and how it was solved.
Written in 1935 and this is fairly obvious by the style of story telling which does occasional get a bit irritating.
On a January afternoon in Oxford the body of the college bursar of Persephone College is found dead in her canoe by four of the college's students. It is these Persephone girls who suspect foul play and decide to investigate.
A NetGalley Book
On a January afternoon in Oxford the body of the college bursar of Persephone College is found dead in her canoe by four of the college's students. It is these Persephone girls who suspect foul play and decide to investigate.
A NetGalley Book
Read this as part of a classic crime book group read. It was amusing to spot the tropes of the era, but on the whole this was a jolly romp, despite the death of a character.
I never read anything by Mavis Doriel Hay. I also don’t really read books written in the 1930s, for some odd reason. This was a really fun, girl power detective. It isn’t bloody, it isn’t boring, it’s just a more YA type of detective. I really recommend it if you are just starting out on the detectives! Really, one of my favourite detectives I have read thus far!