GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?

by Anne Morice ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 1984

After a soporific stretch, Morice seems to have regained some of her mid-1970s sparkle--with Murder Post-Dated (p. 19) and, to a lesser extent, with this country-hotel mystery for actress Tessa Crichton and Scotland Yard husband Robin. Are these two workaholics really going to get away from business-as-usual with a holiday at Mattingly Grange, a posh lodge near Bath? Or does Robin secretly intend to look into the never-solved murder, a few years back, of real-estate assistant Pauline Oakes--found dead at a racecourse near Mattingly Grange? Soon, in fact, amid some mild comedy in the Fawlty Towers vein, Robin is rehashing that old case--while finding connections, rather too coincidentally, between the bygone killing and some of the hotel's current residents. And when new crimes start proliferating--arson at a nearby manor, the murder of the hotel's assistant-manager--Tessa comes up with a so-so explanation to pin all the villainy on one rather humdrum culprit. Despite the middling puzzle and some excess chattiness: airy, pleasantly low-key doings--with more than a few choice targets (the hotel foibles, a dreadful local theater-company, real-estate finaglings, assorted hotel-guests) for Tessa's shrewd, brittle wit.

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1984

Categories: FICTION