Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A marvellous entry in this excellent series, 27 Feb 2007
Late leaving the college, late collecting her daughter, late home - dinner burning, daughter Grace shrieking, Cassandra James lets the telephone ring several times before she answers it, when she does there is a cry and then silence. Perturbed she goes to punch in 1471, but before she can do so the telephone rings again, but there is no one there, and the caller has withheld their number.
Next morning when she arrives at her office Superintendent Jim Ferguson is waiting for her ,and breaks the news that Dr Una Carwardine, had been found by her cleaner dead at the foot of the stairs, the last number dialled from her phone was Cassandra's number. Cassandra is devastated - so busy trying to get her book on sisters on Victorian fiction finished before her deadline, which is just two weeks away, she had put-off returning Una's telephone messages, now it's too late - what had she wanted to tell Cassandra?
The college had understood that Una, wife of the late writer Terence Carwardine, had left her library of some 13 thousand books to Cambridge Literary and Philosophical Institute, but it appears that she had recently changed her will. Giles the head librarian is convinced it's Cassandra's fault. But Cassandra has no idea why, but is concerned at a number of other strange things that are happening, the loss of her ring, and most perturbing of all the odd appearances of another Cassandra James!
The story makes compelling reading, as the reader is immersed in the daily lives of the characters, Giles, her ex-student Michelle, who is now Giles assistant, Eileen Burnham. owner of Burbham books, not to mention Bill Bailey, and Florence the Institute cat. And of course her partner Steven and the lovely if increasingly noisy baby Grace. This is a marvellous entry in this excellent series, one of those books that you have to keep reading but hate to finish. Highly recommended.
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Lizzie Hayes
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent whodunit, 27 Oct 2008
Cassandra James is trying to meet a deadline for the book she is writing when a friend of hers - Una - is murdered. A few days later she receives a letter posted by her friend the day she died saying she needs to talk to her urgently about suspicions she has, and Cassandra is drawn into the investigation. Full of academic rivalries and fascinating information about rare books this is a book which will appeal to anyone who enjoys classic detective stories. The plot is complex and many layered and the characters are realistic and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the quality of the writing is excellent.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Sleuthing among the book stacks, 28 Mar 2008
The previous reviewer has given an excellent outline to the plot of this 3rd Cassandra James crime novel in which the reader is transported to a wintry Cambridge. The chilly weather is an appropriate backdrop for this chilling tale of murder in a private library, the Cambridge Literary and Philosophical Institute, a figment of the novelist's imagination but which springs to life in this pages of this book. Excellent stuff and I hope there will be many more in this series. Poulson's name could soon be synonymous with Cambridge crime novels just as Veronica Stallwood's is with the Oxford crime novels featuring amateur sleuth Kate Ivory.
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by Christine Poulson
by Kate Ellis
