Assassins at Ospreys
A Country
House Crime Mystery with Antonia Darcy and Hugh Payne
R. T.
Raichev
Soho Constable (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-505-9 (1569475059)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-505-8 (9781569475058)
Publication Date: April 2008
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): When one of mystery writer Antonia Darcy’s admiring readers, Bee Ardleigh, becomes over friendly, Antonia finds it just a bit of a bore. But when she and her husband Major Hugh Payne are persuaded to visit Bee at Millbrook House, they begin to suspect it’s something more sinister. Is the lovely Bee, newly wed, really an invalid? Where does her female live-in companion go on her frequent outings? Why would the mortally ill master of nearby Ospreys estate decide to change his will and leave his vast fortune to Beatrice? Hugh and Antonia become embroiled in a gruesome death in their perilous pursuit of the truth.
Review: The
challenge in writing a mystery genre “cozy” is to retain
the often shop worn conventions of the form but with liberal doses of
imagination, experimentation, intelligence and perhaps even sprinklings
of irony, satire and fun. In Assassins
at Ospreys, the third volume in the Antonia Darcy – Hugh
Payne series, R. T. Raichev has more than met the challenge with a
novel that combines the best of Agatha Christie’s detective work,
the sparkle-in-the-eye fun of Alexander McCall Smith, and the riveting
attention of a game of Clue.
Raichev’s story is to be read as much for the side trips it takes
in presenting a writer writing about other writers and making remarks
about them, as for the comfortable pace at which the story moves, the
relative ease with which the mysteries are solved, and the sense of
comfort that the guilty parties will inevitably be caught and punished
to return the world to its rightful order. As with other cozy
who-dunnits, Raichev’s depends on the self-reliance of the main
protagonists, in this case mystery writer Darcy and her husband, Major
Payne, to solve the current mystery, as they have done for two earlier
ones, without too much outside intervention from the local police. And
the murder and mayhem mystery at the Ospreys estate, thanks to Raichev,
is clearly laid out and easy to follow, although there are sufficient
red herrings, potential suspects and disguised characters to trap the
unwary reader. There are also coincidences and exaggerations which
stretch credibility but the novel is after all, a comfort-zone cozy,
and one with tinges of irony and satire as well. Even chapter titles
like Lord of the Flies, The Mortification of Moriarty, and The Hound of Death elicit a certain
levity, especially in light of the contents of the relevant chapters.
And then there are the characters. Wealthy and dying Ralph Renshawe
“had made all the arrangements for his own funeral”. And to
ensure the old man gets to his final resting place sooner rather than
later, his “nefarious nephew” Robin has teamed up with a
rogue cleric, Father Lillie-Lysander, who sells tidbits from the
confessional to Robin and others. But in a comedy of errors, a
doppelganger of Ralph’s ex-girlfriend Beatrice “Bee”
Ardleigh, a friend of Antonia’s and an on-again, off-again
invalid, gets caught up in the dastardly deeds as well, leaving the
final few pages of the novel for the Darcy and Payne duo to sort out
who the assassins at Osprey were and how and why a missing nurse, a
jealous husband, a set of knitting needles, a Polaroid photograph and a
Taj Mahal necklace fit into the scheme of things.
Raichev’s story is a light and entertaining read, cleverly done,
and worthy of a weekend read.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Assassins at Ospreys and to Soho Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Assassins at Ospreys? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette
Carroll & Graf (Hardcover), June 2006
ISBN-10: 0-7867-1734-3 (0786717343)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7867-1734-7 (9780786717347)
The Death of Corinne
Carroll & Graf (Hardcover), July 2007
ISBN-10: 0-7867-1972-9 (0786719729)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7867-1972-3 (9780786719723)
Assassins at Ospreys
Soho Constable (Hardcover), April 2008
ISBN-10: 1-56947-505-9 (1569475059)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-505-8 (9781569475058)
Omnimystery keywords for Assassins at Ospreys ...
Location(s) referenced: England.
