This is the fourth (out of eight) mysteries featuring amateur sleuth and retired botany professor, Andrew Basnett. To date, including this one, I have read five, the other titles being: Something Wicked (1983), Root of all Evil (1984), The Crime and the Crystal (1985) and Smoke Without Fire (1990). I think I’ve now read 20 of Ferrars’ books, and I still have 5 left in my TBR pile. Who knows later this year, if I read the other five I could do a ranked list, 25 in 2025?
Synopsis
‘It was with a sense of resignation that Andrew Basnett, retired botany professor, accompanied an old friend to her home in a Berkshire village because her sister had received a blackmail letter. The letter has obviously been put in the wrong envelope, but it seemed to indicate that a murder had been committed in Lindleham, where strangely, several people were missing from their homes. Had the old man gone to visit his son in Australia? Was the little boy who had run away still alive? Had the doctor’s wife walked out on him, as he reported? What had happened to the businessman who failed to return from his mysterious work in the City and whom his wife believed to be working for MI5? Quietly Andrew investigates his friends’ neighbours and discovers situations of deepening complexity. Not the least disconcerting is the dawning realisation that his friends too have something to hide.’
Overall Thoughts
The opening scene reminded me of how Andrew Basnett is a likeable protagonist on the whole. It is very sweet when he becomes embarrassed after his friend, Professor Constance Camm unexpectedly arrives early for a visit. Why is he embarrassed you ask? Well, not only is he in his pyjamas and dressing gown, but he is not wearing his slippers! Only socks no less. How mortifying!
Ferrars does a good job of setting up an interesting mystery for the reader and Basnett to solve. The blackmail letter Mollie (Constance’s sister) receives is suitably dramatic: ‘Don’t forget I saw you bury him. I know where the body is. And it can stay there as long as you remember what I said about payments. Don’t forget.’ The situation is also made more intricate in several ways. Firstly, Constance thinks the blackmailer put the wrong letter in the envelope. So, who has Mollie’s letter? What dark secret does it hint at? And who was buried? Regarding the final question, I think the author provides a number of different possible candidates, which gives shape and solidity to Andrew’s investigation. Due to the second question, Constance is resistant to sharing all of this with the police. Does Mollie have a skeleton in her closet? If so, neither sister is saying, which complicates the sleuthing experience for Basnett, adding for a time a great deal of moral ambiguity. I was curious as to how Ferrars would deal with this, yet I must admit the approach she goes with took me by surprise. I definitely did not see that particular development coming, but I think it was a very sound choice, as it energises the mystery and makes it a more exciting and gripping read.
I thought the solution was a good in most respects, and there was only one aspect which I felt needed a little more cluing (but perhaps that might have given things away too soon). Nevertheless, when going over the solution in my mind, it was interesting to see how many signposts Ferrars had left along the way, embedded in her narrative. This is definitely a novel in which you need to pay attention to the conversations the characters have, as the answers can invariably be found in innocent comments. This is a dialogue driven mystery, but I appreciated how Ferrars ensures the case is still a very tangible one. The title of the story comes from a line in Macbeth. I don’t think it is a direct clue to who the guilty party is, but apparently this line is associated with the theme of equivocation and Basnett does encounter some ambiguous phrasing in this case, which is similar. One of the nice things about this series is that it doesn’t seem crucial to read it chronologically, you can dip in anywhere. I think I have at least one more in this series to read sitting on my shelf, so I am looking forward to trying that one soon.
Rating: 4.25/5