Many people like their mysteries well balanced: Great plot; wonderful characters; terrific character development; almost indecipherable mystery; not too much blood; and outstanding writing. If that's your goal, this book isn't the best choice for you.
But if you like your mysteries to be focused in creepy circumstances with deeply flawed characters, The Skull Beneath the Skin will probably serve your purposes quite well.
I have both read this book and listened to the Books on Tape unabridged version read by Penelope Dellaporta. I strongly prefer the recording, which better captures the book's mood.
This is the second and last (for more than 25 years so far) mystery featuring Cordelia Gray who starred in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Since that novel, Cordelia has carved out a living running the detective agency that her ex-partner Bernie established, which agency now specializes in recovering lost pets thanks to the help of two part-time employees from Cordelia's old typing agency.
Cordelia's still having a hard time making a go of the agency. She's putting up a new plaque (that's hung crookedly) when her prospective client arrives, the husband of the fading actress Clarissa Lisle. Clarissa had observed Cordelia concluding one of her pet detective forays and saw something undefined that she liked. As a result, Clarissa has sent her husband to hire Cordelia to protect Clarissa from receiving any more death threats while Clarissa tries to resurrect her career with an amateur production of The Duchess of Malfi on secluded Courcy Island.
Cordelia is soon being stone-walled by Clarissa . . . but does succeed in intercepting several nasty notes. Also Clarissa turns out to be a pretty self-centered, unpleasant woman. As the stories are related to Cordelia, she's finding it hard to be professional about her responsibilities. The last straw comes when Cordelia is ordered not to guard Clarissa's door just before the performance. As you can imagine, someone kills Clarissa just then . . . and Cordelia feels totally embarrassed professionally. Despite a warning to "keep out" by the local police, Cordelia finds herself unraveling the twisted motives of those on the island and checking on their access to Clarissa's room at the key moment. The suspects make all of this harder by showing a preference to create a cover up.
All the time, you feel like even more of an outsider than Cordelia looking on at most unpleasant sights.
Cordelia does unravel the mystery . . . and finds herself challenged to avoid a great wrong. That crisis brings the book to a height of emotion and to a delightfully ambiguous conclusion.
Cordelia has a lot to learn about detection. Stopping murders is harder than finding wandering cats. But she has a keen intelligence and devotion to duty that serve her well.
But the real star in this book is the mood of decay, dissipation and collapse that Baroness James creates. It's very creepy!
If you were to gauge the book on the appeal of the plot alone, this would be a 2-3 star book . . . so if that's what you're looking for, keep looking. The plot is also sub-par compared to An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Cordelia's role also isn't quite as interesting as that book. For reasonably long sections of this book, Cordelia all but disappears into the woodwork.
Watch out for the many allusions to the skull beneath the skin. It's a masterful use of imagery to set a truly appropriate mood for many dastardly deeds.
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