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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found Sarah Caudwell's books through slightly foxed and as they are sadly almost all out of print I am immensly gratefull to amazon for the chance to track them down. Very funny if wordy who dunnits which I can really recommend to anyone who loves Agatha Christie
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It was with some trepidation that I approached this, Sarah Caudwell's last novel. After a gap of more than ten years, preceded by the disappointing 'The Sirens Sang of Murder', could Caudwell rediscover the genius of her first two Hilary Tamar novels in this posthumous work? Sadly, the answer is no, although it has to be admitted that 'Thus was Adonis Murdered' and 'The Shortest Way to Hades' were a hard act to follow. Caudwell's protagonists have aged not a day in ten years, but I can happily suspend disbelief on that, as I can on her trademark amazing coincidences. The writing is as elegant and eruditely witty as ever and the novel is worth reading as a tribute to an author who wrote two of the funniest and best plotted crime novels in the canon of contemporary fiction.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
The last Caudwell gem
15 Aug 2000
Format:Hardcover
Although British author Sarah Caudwell wrote only four Hilary Tamar comedy-of-manners mysteries before her death in January, the long wait between each of them only whetted her fan's appetites. Oxford Professor Tamar's gender (as well as height, complexion, build and every other personal detail) remains a mystery in Caudwell's last, "The Sibyl In Her Grave," and the writing is as precise, elegant, urbane, witty and polished as any fan could hope.
Introducing the story, Tamar addresses the issue of personal appearance, admitting that some readers have expressed an interest. "I do not doubt, however, that these enquiries are made purely as a matter of courtesy and to take them au pied de la lettre would be as grave a solecism as to answer a polite 'How do you do, Professor Tamar?' with a full account of the state of my digestion."
Happily the narrator's reticence does not extend to the team of four young London barristers whose personal, romantic and professional doings enliven Caudwell's stories. Julia, tax expert, is concerned for her Aunt Regina who has made a truly remarkable killing in stocks and is now expected to pay tax on money already spent. Meanwhile Selena's client, a retiring merchant banker, has discovered that one of the two men vying to succeed him is guilty of insider trading - but which one?
These two threads neatly tie into the death of a despised neighbor of Regina's, a psychic whose aviary includes a pet vulture and whose household includes a most unattractive and hapless niece. The other two young barristers, Cantrip and Ragwort, supply red herrings and clues as needed and Hilary pursues this trail of coincidence to come up with several elegant solutions, each one engagingly convincing until demolished.
Dryly hilarious, elegantly polished, Caudwell is the Jane Austen of mysteries and though her books are few, each can be read and reread for the sheer delight of the writing and the intricate, comic plots.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Caudwell's Swansong
17 July 2000
Format:Hardcover
When I first stumbled upon Sarah Caudwell's mystery fiction it was as if I were encountering a sly witty persona with whom I wanted to become a good friend. But having devoured her first three novels, the greatest mystery was why this entertaining novelist had not penned more? As a result, it was a mixed blessing to learn Caudwell did indeed pen a fourth and, sadly, final novel, The Sibyl in Her Grave.
The fictional mechanism Caudwell uses to push her narrative forward still relies heavily upon a modified epistolary form. Though the narrative's letters are fascinating reading and are infused with the allure of reading someone else's personal correspondence, the reader must suspend belief as we know modern man would not sit still, even with the facility of word processing software via computer, long enough to write such fulsome, detailed and informative letters to each other about any topic, let alone suspicious deaths.
Nevertheless, The Sibyl continues the trademark wittiness of Caudwell's earlier three novels. Though her fictional landscape is littered with the requisite corpse or two, she manages to keep the reader guessing until the last chapter -- and not merely about whodunit.
What a pity there won't be more fiction from Sarah Caudwell.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
For those who tolerate litotes
12 Nov 2000
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Caudwell fans have to be lovers of long convoluted sentences and elaborate figures of speech with scraps of Latin and French. The syle is mannered and the narrative is carried by implausibly long letters written in Augustan prose. Die-hard Caudwell fans already know that, and for us the only discussion is the place of this one, with its all-to-prophetic title, in the canon, now forever reduced to the number of the Gospels. In this one she offers us a version of the traditional English cosy, with a village and a vicar and a spinster aunt. The erudition is a shade less esoteric than in some of the more demanding ones and there is less straight heterosexual sex (although this is made up for in other directions). The twists of plot as the book climaxes are breath-taking, but are merely icing on the cake of suberb prose, biting wit, and deft characterization.
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