A Mansion for Murder, by Frances Brody - Colin
Frances Brody’s A Mansion for Murder is her latest Kate Shackleton novel, and it features a real place – Milner Field, near Saltaire in West Yorkshire. Kate is a private investigator, working with Jim Sykes and her housekeeper, Mrs Sugden. In 1930, Kate receives a mysterious letter from Ronnie Creswell, addressed to Mrs Gerald Shackleton, inviting her to meet him. Not many people would address her using her late husband’s name so she’s intrigued enough to accept the invitation. However, when she arrives at his home, she learns that Ronnie drowned that day. Kate and her colleagues get drawn into investigating Ronnie’s death and some possible industrial espionage at the mill where he worked.
Once again, Brody’s nailed the narrative tone of an intelligent professional woman. Most of the book is narrated in the first person by Kate, but suddenly switches to third person when Brody needs to include a scene without her. This can be a little confusing, but I figure it’s a small price to pay for reading such good books.
The characters are well delineated and not so many that the reader gets confused. The plot is plausible and moves reasonably briskly. There are no laugh out loud moments and the tone is gentle and measured, primarily due to Kate’s narrative voice. There were a few errors in the early proof copy that I was given for review, but I’m sure they will be fixed before publication. None of them distracted the reader very much as it was obvious what was meant.
I really enjoyed the book and I strongly recommend it if you enjoy British mysteries set between the wars. The plot was unusual, although I guessed whodunnit for once by a process of elimination.
- Colin
