The
Oxford Murders
Non-series
Guillermo
Martínez
Penguin
(Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-14-303796-X (014303796X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-303796-5 (9780143037965)
Publication Date: September 2006
List Price: $13.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): On a summer’s day in Oxford, a young
Argentine mathematics student finds his landlady – an elderly
woman who helped decipher the Enigma Code during World War II
– murdered in her house. Meanwhile, leading Oxford
mathematician Arthur Seldom receives an anonymous note bearing a circle
and the words, “the first of the series,” and a
mystery is born.
Murders begin to pile up – an old man on life-support is
found dead with needle punctures in his throat; a percussionist at
Blenheim Palace dies before the audience’s very eyes
– seemingly unconnected except for notes appearing in the
math department, for the attention of Seldom.
Seldom guesses that the murders might relate to his latest book, an
unexpected best-seller about the parallels between investigations of
serial killers and certain mathematical theorems. As he and the young
student are drawn further into the game, it is up to mentor and student
to solve the puzzle before the killer strikes again.
Review:
I feel I can break my silence and tell the truth about events that
reached the British papers in the summer of '93 with macabre and
sensationalist headlines, but to which Seldom and I always
referred—perhaps due to the mathematical
connotation—simply as the series, or the Oxford Series. So
begins The
Oxford Murders, by Guillermo
Martínez, an intellectual mystery that is reminiscent of a
Sherlock Holmes pastiche in both character and style.
Arthur Seldom is a mathematician of some renown at Oxford University. A
new student at the University, the narrator of the book whose
unpronounceable name is never revealed, initially meets Seldom one day
as he is visiting his landlady. When there is no answer at the door,
they enter and find her dead under somewhat suspicious circumstances.
Seldom later reveals that the reason for his visit was that he received
a note with her address, the time of day, a circle, and the words, "The
first of a series." Seldom, who has written on the subject of series
and serial killers, believes that this may be the work of someone
trying to challenge him, and that more murders may occur. When they do,
he enlists the aid of the student to find the killer.
There are several compelling facets to The Oxford Murders.
The mathematical discussions, and the historical comparisons between
mathematics and magic, are fascinating and are likely to intrigue
readers who may not think they have an interest in either. The murders,
and their symbolic links, are also deceptively appealing. Consider, for
example, this statement by Seldom on the possibility that death may
have resulted from natural causes: "A natural death, of course, the
logical extreme, the most perfect example of an imperceptible murder."
But there are problems as well. Character development is minimal with
the emphasis placed primarily on the plot. There is an implication at
the start of the book that the narrator and Seldom shared a long and
endearing friendship over the years, but little of how this
relationship may have developed is revealed in this story aside from
the shared experience of The Oxford
Murders.
Finally, and probably most problematic, the resolution to the mystery
is contrived and depends far too much on coincidence to be totally
credible. Or does it? One interpretation may be that
Martínez wrote the book as a demonstration of Occam's razor,
which states that when presented with two equally legitimate
explanations for an event, the simpler, less complicated one is likely
to be the most valid. This reasoning, while consistent with the book's
premise, may be too subtle and intricate to be convincing and may, in
fact, violate the very principle it's meant to illustrate.
Special thanks to FSB Associates for providing a trade paperback edition of The Oxford Murders for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read The Oxford Murders? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author available in English …
Regarding
Roderer
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover), December 1994
ISBN-10: 0-31211374-9 (0312113749)
ISBN-13: 978-0-31211374-2 (9780312113742)
The Oxford Murders
Penguin (Trade Paperback), September 2006
ISBN-10: 0-14-303796-X (014303796X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-303796-5 (9780143037965)
The
Book of Murder
Viking (Hardcover), September 2008
ISBN-10: 0-67001994-1 (0670019941)
ISBN-13: 978-0-67001994-6 (9780670019946)
Omnimystery
keywords for The Oxford Murders
...
Location(s) referenced: Oxford,
England.
