Monday, May 07, 2012

Before the Poison

Chris Lowndes is a former Yorkshire native who has retuned to the Dales.  In California, he made a good living writing music for movies, but now needs some time away to recover from his wife's death and work on a personal composition.  He buys sight unseen a large rambling mansion where he senses some ghostly presence.  When he is told the murder of a former landowner by his beautiful young wife occured in the house fiftty years earlier, he becomes intrigued.   Grace Fox was found guilty and was subsequently hanged of the murder of her husband, Dr. Ernest Fox.  Evidence was circumstantial, but she was deemed a wanton woman because of an affair.  Chris feels a need to find out the truth about the murder and begins asking questions of his new friends and neighbors.
This is a lovely and charming book, part mystery and part historical novel.  At the beginning of each chapter is a page from Grace's diary kept during World War II.  She was a Queen Alexandra nurse and traveled with the soldiers during the war.  Did this have anything to do with the murder of her husband?  This novel is moving and you can find yourself  very involved with the characters.
Peter Robinson usually writes the Inspector Alan Banks mystery.  This is a very welcome stand alone novel.

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