- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Collins Crime; First Edition edition (15 Jun 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002325586
- ISBN-13: 978-0002325585
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,015,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘An intelligent, exciting psychological drama… A powerful feeling of something nasty just around the corner prevails… An unusual achievement’
Daily Mail
‘This author knows precisely how to wield suspense’
Independent on Sunday
‘Clammy… atmospheric… showing admirable control over matters psychological’
The Times
‘Taylor is a major thriller talent’
Time Out
Product Description
‘Andrew Taylor digs deep to explore the tangled roots of sex, violence and religion. This is a fine thriller, with clues complex enough to tax a Morse.’ Reginald Hill (on The Four Last Things)
The second novel in the Roth Trilogy is the story of David Byfield, a widowed parish priest with a dark past and a darker future. Set in 1970 in a commuter village near London, the novel explores the consequences of Byfield’s second marriage.
Roth is not so much a village as a suburban state of mind. But the past clings, and still has the power to affect the present. The menopausal Audrey Oliphant, churchwarden and spinster, nurses a hopeless passion for her parish priest. Lady Youlgreave slides towards death, in the company of her equally senile dogs, Beauty and Beast. The big house, now a wreck of its former grandeur, has been sold to a pair of hippies, brother and sister, who have their own secrets and their own power to disturb. The vicar’s new wife is fascinated by a Victorian poet-priest with local connections – Francis Youlgreave, author of The Judgement of Strangers; an opium addict and suicide. There are children at the Vicarage – Michael Appleyard, a watchful boy with a taste for Sherlock Holmes; and Rosemary, David’s teenage daughter, as beautiful – and as strange – as an angel. Then the murders begin, and the mutilations, and the echoes of past crimes and blasphemies.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read all 3 books in the Roth Trilogy and very much enjoyed them all but this one is my favourite. It's set in the small village of Roth in Middlesex in the 1970's where David Byfield is a widowed parish priest. The course of the book sees his meeting and subsequent marriage to Vanessa, a marriage that seems to be the catalyst to a train of unsavoury events with a darker undertone, the true magnitude of which, only becomes clear at the very end. The story is well laid out and easy to follow with each character well established, not least the every present Miss Oliphant. I don't want to give too much away but the way it links to the other books in the Trilogy is excellent.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
These books one volume constitute a masterpiece, unparalled.
Andrew Taylor really is the best crime writer alive, in my opinion. I like all his books.
But this really is something special.
The first book is somewhat gruesome and with hindsight I realise I have viewed it as a spring-board to the other two. I love the way that each volume is written in a different style/genre and I loved the complexity of the final volume.
I cannot recommend this trilogy too highly - I wish I could have the experience again of reading it for the first time!
Andrew Taylor really is the best crime writer alive, in my opinion. I like all his books.
But this really is something special.
The first book is somewhat gruesome and with hindsight I realise I have viewed it as a spring-board to the other two. I love the way that each volume is written in a different style/genre and I loved the complexity of the final volume.
I cannot recommend this trilogy too highly - I wish I could have the experience again of reading it for the first time!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the last book in the Roth trilogy - the earliest book chronologically - and I really recommend reading them in the order intended. Andrew Taylor is a master of understatement, of the horror lurking just under the deceptively normal surface. These books have staid with me for a long time and I look forward to re-reading them.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Judgement of Strangers
Very poor follow on to Trilogy 1.
Always hoping the storey would get better - it never did.
Regards, MDC.
Always hoping the storey would get better - it never did.
Regards, MDC.
Published 19 months ago by The Fox
The Jury is still out !!!!!!!
As I went through this book I thought I would award it no more than three stars. Described as a thriller and yet I was not thrilled. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
