Death
of a Pilgrim
A
Lord Powerscourt Investigation
David
Dickinson
Soho
Constable (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-540-7 (1569475407)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-540-9 (9781569475409)
Publication Date: March 2009
List Price: $25.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): 1905. A pilgrim is killed in Le Puy en Velay, France, and Lord Francis Powerscourt is summoned to investigate. More deaths plague pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Powerscourt’s own life is put in danger before he solves the murders.
Review:
Lord Francis Powerscourt, vacationing in France with his wife Lady
Lucy, is called upon to look into the mysterious death of a family
member on a pilgrimage to Spain in Death of a
Pilgrim,
the eighth mystery in this series by David Dickinson.
Michael Delaney is one of the richest men in America. But all his
wealth hasn't prevented his only son from being stricken with a
presumably incurable form of leukemia. The best care money can buy
isn't helping. When doctors suggest they do nothing, let Nature take
its course, Delaney agrees. Miraculously, his son begins to improve. As
a measure of Delaney's gratitude, he agrees to finance a journey from
Le Puy-en-Velay in southern France to Santiago de Compostela in
northwestern Spain, a historical pilgrimage route dating to the Middle
Ages. He intends to invite as many Delaneys as can be found to
participate. But the trip starts with a tragedy when John Delaney from
England is found dead, possibly an accident, possibly not. The local
police intend to investigate thoroughly but Michael Delaney pulls some
strings to move things along. Lord Powerscourt happens to be in France
and is willing to intervene. The family is allowed to proceed (a
contribution or two facilitating the process) but then more Delaneys
are killed, some clearly not accidental. It isn't until the family
crosses into Spain and enters Pamplona during the festival featuring
the running of the bulls that Lord Powerscourt figures out who is
targeting the Delaney family and why.
Despite the fact that Death of a Pilgrimage
takes place along a route between France and Spain, it is at its core a
prototypical English country manor mystery. And a very good one at
that. The narrative is wonderfully descriptive, meticulously detailed
yet not tediously dull. The scenes involving Lord Powerscourt meeting
with the official representatives of the French village of Puy-en-Velay
are particularly entertaining and illustrative of much of the style of
the story. The plot is, admittedly, not terribly original and astute
readers will likely identify the culprit long before Lord Powerscourt
reveals who it is in a typical drawing room-style denouement, but the
thrill here is not in discovering whodunit, or even whydunit, but in
the glorious journey itself.
Special thanks to Soho Press for providing an ARC of Death of a Pilgrim for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Death of a Pilgrim? How would you rate it?
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Death of a Pilgrim
Soho Constable (Hardcover), March 2009
ISBN-10: 1-56947-540-7 (1569475407)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-540-9 (9781569475409)
Omnimystery
keywords for Death of a Pilgrim
...
Location(s) referenced: France, Spain.
