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A review by michelleful
A Most Contagious Game by Catherine Aird
5.0
Serendipity is what brought me to this book - walked past the university book exchange today and stumbled upon it. Brought it back, and a couple of hours later, I'm done. If not for this, I am 100% sure I would never ever have heard of this author or read this book, and now I want to read more!
The story is set in a quiet English village, its unlikely protagonist a retired City banker who's had a heart attack and been consigned to the country to recuperate. Investigating a mystery of the electric system in the ancient manor he's bought, he discovers one day a "priest's hole" - a small space in which to hide a priest when Catholics were being persecuted in England. In it lies a skeleton of a boy, dead almost 200 years. Since the police don't care to investigate, he sets out to do so himself, and brings the reader along on the ride.
What I really enjoyed about this book was that I felt like I was getting all the clues and could contribute in figuring out what was going on. There were a couple of elements that seemed unnecessary and plucked out of nowhere, but overall the plot was really skilfully woven and all the reasoning logical - nothing truly genius about it, but good old-fashioned puzzling out a mystery.
The story is set in a quiet English village, its unlikely protagonist a retired City banker who's had a heart attack and been consigned to the country to recuperate. Investigating a mystery of the electric system in the ancient manor he's bought, he discovers one day a "priest's hole" - a small space in which to hide a priest when Catholics were being persecuted in England. In it lies a skeleton of a boy, dead almost 200 years. Since the police don't care to investigate, he sets out to do so himself, and brings the reader along on the ride.
What I really enjoyed about this book was that I felt like I was getting all the clues and could contribute in figuring out what was going on. There were a couple of elements that seemed unnecessary and plucked out of nowhere, but overall the plot was really skilfully woven and all the reasoning logical - nothing truly genius about it, but good old-fashioned puzzling out a mystery.