- Mass Market Paperback
- Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm); Reissue edition (Mar 1986)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553254634
- ISBN-13: 978-0553254631
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 11.4 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,263,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
The village of Larking is one of those quiet small towns where everyone fancies they know everything about everyone else, especially quiet-living widows like Grace Jenkins, bringing up one daughter, now away at university. It's so small that Harry Ford the postman does his round on a bicycle - and he's grateful for it when he finds Mrs. Jenkins dead in the road not far from home, clearly a victim of a hit-and-run driver the previous night. But the formalities of a road traffic accident require a formal identification and an autopsy, so Henrietta is recalled from school to identify Grace Jenkins.
Then Dr. Dabbe delivers his report, and the case goes to Sloan of the CID rather than Harpe of Traffic Division - because Grace Jenkins was run over twice, once each way, and it looks like murder by motorcar. But the most troublesome fact has no immediate bearing on the death, and goes to show that even in a village, some secrets can be kept: Dr. Dabbe's expert opinion is that not only did the deceased never give birth to any child, but she's not likely ever to have been married, either.
So Henrietta isn't Henrietta Jenkins - but who is she? Somebody has been very thorough in covering his or her tracks; the Jenkins cottage was broken into, and Henrietta's birth certificate is missing. Where do you begin when a very discreet woman covered up all traces of her own identity and that of the child she raised almost from birth? Worse, Grace brought Henrietta to Larking in the middle of WWII - not the best time to try to find records for.
Very good character development - Henrietta has lost the only mother she ever knew, not once but twice, and has to question everything Grace ever told her, and it hits about as hard as you'd expect. There's comic relief, too, when Sloan and Crosby begin tracing people Grace Jenkins mentioned having worked for once, and they find out a lot about her sense of humor. The murder is a fair puzzle, with all the clues artfully concealed in plain sight, if you're paying attention.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Henrietta Who? belongs to the British Miss Marple/country village mystery style of literature. Something unusual happens and gradually a skein of crime unravels because of police work, coincidence (hardly any) and the criminal's mistakes.
The author has an engaging style and the book is easy to read. There seems to be very little detection but it IS there as well as clues nicely hidden. And humour is there also to leaven the serious business.
Once discovered, the works of Catherine Aird are worth reading.
The author has an engaging style and the book is easy to read. There seems to be very little detection but it IS there as well as clues nicely hidden. And humour is there also to leaven the serious business.
Once discovered, the works of Catherine Aird are worth reading.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Whodunit? Nope - more of a Whoisit!?
25 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
Life, for Henrietta Jenks, had always been a quiet, well-ordered affair. But just before her 21st birthday, her mother is struck by a hit and run driver, and Henrietta discovers she's not who she thought she was.
This is the third in Aird's series of excellently well-written, police-procedural-types of classic British mystery with the team of Detective-Inspector Sloan (methodical, persistent, an all-around "good copper") and Detective-Constable Crosby (young, brash and a bit dim).
The best about Aird's books is that she actually gives you the clues (in the best tradition) cleverly hidden in the dialog and descriptions, so that if you pay close attention, you have a good chance of figuring things out. I wish more of her books were in print. Not as depressing as Martha Grimes or Elizabeth George, but equally interesting, and her detecting team manage to be amusing while still "real" people.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
A classic who-dun-it that's well worth reading.
15 Aug 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Like other reviewers I really enjoyed this book. It's probably Catherine Aird's best.
Grace Jenkins is knocked down by a car and killed, which leaves her 20-year-old daughter Henrietta alone in the world. Bewildered Henrietta is then told that on the basis of the autopsy examination Grace Jenkins couldn't possibly be her mother- she had never had any children.
Meanwhile,in one of the best scenes of the book, the police are examining the scene of the traffic "accident", and coming to the grim conclusion that it was a case of murder by motor car.
The police have to solve a murder, and Henrietta has to find her true identity. The book is a comfortable read without being too soft-headed, and the dialogue is first-rate. The book is fairly short- there is no unnecessary padding. If you like English village who-dun-its you won't be disappointed!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A Classic Murder Tale!
21 July 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Ms. Aird writes a detective story in the truly classic way. Her plots are tight and there are just enough red herrings to make it interesting. This book is no exception. Poor Henrietta Jenkins loses her mother in a hit-and-run accident and then discovers that she's not Henrietta Jenkins at all, and the woman that she knew as her mother could not possibly have been. So who is she and who were her parents? The hit-and-run turns out to be murder and DI Slonae is called in to investigate. He's got a real puzzler on his hands with this one because no one is who they seem. An excellent little who-dun-it that is truly fun to read.
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