A murder in Prague seems a long way from Morpeth, England, and the work of Arnold Landon in the county Department of Antiquities & Museums, but that's how his latest mystery starts. He’s still managing to deal effectively with his controversy-averse director and Karen Stannard, his immediate supervisor who tries to circumvent Arnold and take credit for his work at every opportunity.
He’s sent to “be a presence” in a new project involving Saxon tomb excavations at the site of a major housing and hotel development. And with characteristic ease, controversy about the project begins to swirl; what looked perfectly fine on the surface may be anything but underneath. And a new professor at the local university is stirring things up, confronting people at project meetings (after she shows up uninvited) and then making barely veiled accusations on a television program.
The professor also seems to be his boss’s new interest in life; the two women are seen everywhere together. Stannard lets her personal feelings prompt a report on the project, which is promptly mentioned on television by the new professor.
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| Roy Lewis |
The new professor will soon find herself the dead professor, and the list of possible suspects is legion. It includes Landon’s boss.
Murder in the Cottage is the 12th Arnold Landon mystery novel by British author Roy Lewis. It’s a bit different from its predecessors; there’s not as much emphasis on medieval masonry, wood construction, and archaeology as there is in the earlier stories. But it’s still a cracking good story, with a murder victim that seems just as nasty a person as the killer turns out to be.
Lewis (1933-2019) was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England.
Related:
Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.
Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.
Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis.
Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.
Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.
Some Thursday Readings
Murders for July – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.
The Black Spectacles: John Dickson Carr’s Most Unusual Crime Novel – Martin Edwards at CrimeReads.
Fact vs. Fiction: Real Crime Stories Make Good Novels – Laura Essay at CrimeReads.
Poet Laura: Chocolate Elemental – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Challenging Experts: A Lone Journalist Confronts John Steinbeck – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.
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