Two contrasting book reviews -- Mari Howard

 Murder in the Highlands: a Sophie Sayers Cozy Mystery by Debbie Young. p/b Boldwood 9.99 / Kindle 2023

 

A Perfectly Good Man by Patrick Gale p/b 4th Estate 2012

It’s said that writers should read widely. Over Easter, I’ve been reading in two very different genres, but both stories are set in a village and take advantage of the resulting restricted cast of characters.

Cosy mystery, often, if not always, takes place in a lovely quiet village, and is solved by a female protagonist, who is an amateur sleuth. For a writer who has lived in a beautiful Cotswold village for at least half her life, it’s the obvious choice. Author Debbie Young has created a wonderfully wide-eyed young female sleuth, Sophie, a new arrival in her cottage home, and a complete contrast to Miss Marple. And this village boasts something rare – a real bookshop! Quite how Hector, the young man who owns and runs it, made ends meet before Sophie arrived is unclear, but nowadays, she’s not only his shop assistant and girlfriend, but the mind behind developing the tea room – something to entice in the locals and, of course, tourists passing through.

And how exactly does Sophie herself view Hector?

In a village, there is bound to be a set of eccentric characters, and plenty of opportunity for speculation and gossip. In this new story in the Sophie Sayers cosy mysteries series, the reader is only in Wendlebury Barrow long enough to catch up with the gossip. Sophie and Hector are off to Scotland – surely this must mean a ‘secret’ marriage at Gretna Green? But no, to the young couple’s amazement, the trip provides yet another mystery, and a murder, to solve…

I am never quite sure about Hector’s real intentions towards Sophie – so convenient, a partner and innovator in the bookshop – but he is definitely targeted by someone of malicious intent on this trip, as he is carrying with him an old book of poems in Gaelic, a present for Sophie’s mother… ‘Now read on’ – this mystery is solved, but I was left wondering why Sophie’s parents had bought an old hotel when they moved to Inverness?

Both these books entice the reader with a mystery. Patrick Gale’s ‘A Perfectly Good Man’ is set in West Cornwall, an area I know from holidays. It was published in 2012 and evokes a world that now seems much longer ago, reminding the reader of the pre-pandemic world and also reaching back into the earlier lives of the characters in the age before mobile phones and the Internet. With a deft weaving together of multiple lives and many and varied personalities, Gale slowly reveals the cards in his hand. As their paths cross, some more than once, they complete a set of bizarre circumstances.

I had read this novel before, but had forgotten so much about it that this hardly mattered. Gale is always fair-minded towards each player in the narrative, while showing what a diverse collection human beings are, even in a small place like Pendeen. The story explores complex lives and interactions, looking into the reasons we act as we do, and how the life of one of us may impact upon another, sometimes with devastating results.

The title, ‘A Perfectly Good Man’ is interesting. The writer chose to explore the life of a vicar working in an obscure ex-mining village, and by bringing together the circumstances of all the characters not only shows how this one life pans out, but describes the motivations, weaknesses, and strengths of each character to form the overall picture. In this, I could say, the book is like the making of a jigsaw, gradually revealing which pieces go together and how they all form a whole.

A very intriguing and enjoyable read, complex and satisfying.