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Patrick Grant #4
Mortal Remains
Dr. Patrick Grant does not believe that Felix Lomax died accidentally. The unfortunate Lomax was thought to be lecturing on a luxury cruise liner, but is found washed ashore on a lonely beach in Crete. Grant's investigations take him upon a trail which eventually leads to the tombs of Mycenae, where he ends up risking his own life in an effort to determine the truth.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 15, 1987
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62 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Yorke
86 books53 followersMargaret Yorke was an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson (née Larminie).
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
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February 18, 2023
Mortal Remains is a novel from 1974 by the English crime fiction writer, Margaret Yorke. It is one of a series of six novels featuring the Oxford University professor Doctor Patrick Grant, who inadvertently keeps being involved in murder mysteries.
In this one, the academic and amateur sleuth Patrick Grant is on vacation, alone in Crete. He had intended to holiday with a colleague, but his friend had suffered a fatal heart attack. Because one of his friend’s intentions had been to track down his godson, Yannis, Patrick Grant decides to fly to Crete on his own, and fulfil his friend’s wishes himself. Although the far-right military junta which had ruled Greece since 1967 has now been overthrown, the political situation is still unstable. Nothing has been heard of Yannis or his mother. Patrick Grant feels it only right to try to visit the village where they live, and find out what has happened.
Fairly early on in his vacation, when he is swimming, Patrick Grant discovers a man lying very still, his face down in the water, with his arms outstretched. Moreover, the body is fully dressed. Worst of all, Patrick Grant realises that he personally knows this man; it is a colleague of his from Oxford: Felix Lomax. But surely Felix Lomax had told him that he was to be a guest lecturer on the cruise liner “Persephone” many miles away. What was he doing here? And how had he met such an untimely end?
Patrick Grant leaves the situation in the hands of the local police, led by an Inspector Manolakis, who is courteous and intelligent. However Patrick Grant is suspicious that his friend’s death might not have been accidental, and so is the Inspector. The obvious explanation is that Felix Lomax fell off the cliffs into the sea, and drowned. But Felix Lomax was known to be afraid of heights. Why would he have taken a walk along a narrow path on the side of a steep mountain overlooking the sea? And what was he doing there in the first place?
The novel seems to lose focus after this initial intrigue, and descends into a description of all the people Patrick Grant meets, and his daily holiday itinerary. Occasionally he muses about his lack of female companionship, and his friend’s widow, whom he heartily dislikes. He locates the godson Yannis without too much difficulty. The possible murder of Felix Lomax however seems to have been completely forgotten. Instead we seem to be following a rather humdrum saga about the life and loves of a rather jaded academic.
We follow all the various females Patrick Grant is attracted to, or repelled by, in his judgemental way. There is a mystery woman, Ursula: an attractive white-haired woman in her fifties who travels to Greece frequently. These two become companionable. A couple of the same age, George and Elsie, are also on the tour. They live in America, although George’s parents had been Greek. This visit is mostly a long-awaited dream visit for George, back to his family home. George’s wife tolerates, rather than enjoys, the trip. Others in the party flit in and out of the story, such as Celia and her friend Joyce, an overweight and rather dowdy looking woman, whom Patrick Grant takes pity on, and escorts to various places. An ex-undergraduate of Patrick Grant’s also appears. He is now a vicar, but just as wary of females as he had been when younger. Amused, Patrick Grant steers the eligible females away from him, and consoles one of the drabber women in the tour group who has a yen for an attractive young back-packing student Jill, who is involved with one of the young Greek deckhands. (Are you bored yet?) Patrick also gets to spend time with and console her too. He seems to be a compulsive people-watcher, noting the arrival in the group of two “queers”. Incidentally, this term as used in England of 1974 was outmoded even then, and its use was disrespectful. This was a time way before the term had been reclaimed with pride.
We read about visits to markets, shops, and inns, where Patrick Grant gets to know some of the local characters. We get to know this Oxford don quite well, but the action seems inconsequential and monotonous. Margaret Yorke herself had a great fondness for Crete, and this comes out as a little self-indulgent. The story should have been tighter. I was longing for a second body … or for something to happen.
What could really be going on here? At the time this novel was written, the political situation in Greece was potentially dangerous. We are also on an island which, like the West Country here, has historically had a reputation for smugglers, with plenty of coves along its rocky shores, each with hidden caves. Perhaps the story would be about arms dealing, or drugs; simple theft or stolen antiquities. All of these are possible lines to follow, or possible red herrings. Patrick is drawn to one boat whose owner does not seem to like foreigners watching what he is doing. Equally though the attraction for our middle-aged academic could be Jill.
Mostly the core of the novel does concentrate on the middle-aged characters. Margaret Yorke herself had been a driver in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during World War II. All these characters remember the Second World War, and reminisce about the parts they played in it. Several have been in the army, or the Women’s Royal Naval Service. We begin to doubt whether all of them are telling the truth.
When Patrick Grant puts together a couple of pieces about the mystery of his colleague’s death, he contacts Inspector Manolakis again. Following their suspicions, a trap is set in the tombs of Mycenae. This is quite an exciting episode, among the ancient ruins, where the acoustics play a clever part..
However, the explanation for this is told very quickly, with no attempt at dramatising the back story, or relating much of it to any of the characters we have been following. Most of the characters are fillers, with no connection to either Yannis, or the main mystery. Some, such as the frequently referred to deaf man Arthur Winterton, are completely off stage for the whole novel! After such a long exposition about Greece, its inhabitants, and the tourists, this all feels rushed and overly complicated. The facts are told as if they are in note form.
Margaret Yorke’s first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. Accordingly she wrote more than 40 crime novels, producing at least one full-length novel a year. She was chair of the “Crime Writers’ Association” and in 1999 won their Cartier “Diamond Dagger” for an outstanding lifetime contribution to the genre. She was best known for her stand-alone novels, and I personally prefer these to the Patrick Grant series.
Margaret Yorke is a pseudonym for Margaret Larminie, who was born in Compton, Surrey. She adopted a pen name in order to avoid readers’ confusion with a similarly-named published family member. She spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England when she was 13. During World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver. For five years she lived close to Stratford-upon-Avon working variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges. She was the first woman to ever work in Christ Church College library. Although widely travelled, for many years Margaret Yorke lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire, always being fascinated by Greece and Russia. Her obituary said that:
“Like the author, the novels were robust and uncompromising, and displayed sympathy for the underdog … she specialised in Viyella pyjamas, old-fashioned dressing-gowns and villages not unlike her own. In that sense she exemplified the type of crime fiction known as ”cosy“, but appearances were often deceptive. In fact, as in her fiction, Margaret Yorke was proof that what you saw was not what you got. She practised deception artfully and with style.”
Although not as well known, Margaret Yorke has been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary situations which may seem threatening, or simply horrific. But Margaret Yorke herself once said:
“authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers”.
This is a perceptive personal comment, and one which seems to be exemplified by this particular novel. Of the Patrick Grant novels “Dead in the Morning” is the first one, and a solid whodunnit. Mortal Remains however, is the penultimate one. It is not one of her best, and I would not really recommend it to lovers of the mystery genre, unless you have a particular yen for Greece.
In this one, the academic and amateur sleuth Patrick Grant is on vacation, alone in Crete. He had intended to holiday with a colleague, but his friend had suffered a fatal heart attack. Because one of his friend’s intentions had been to track down his godson, Yannis, Patrick Grant decides to fly to Crete on his own, and fulfil his friend’s wishes himself. Although the far-right military junta which had ruled Greece since 1967 has now been overthrown, the political situation is still unstable. Nothing has been heard of Yannis or his mother. Patrick Grant feels it only right to try to visit the village where they live, and find out what has happened.
Fairly early on in his vacation, when he is swimming, Patrick Grant discovers a man lying very still, his face down in the water, with his arms outstretched. Moreover, the body is fully dressed. Worst of all, Patrick Grant realises that he personally knows this man; it is a colleague of his from Oxford: Felix Lomax. But surely Felix Lomax had told him that he was to be a guest lecturer on the cruise liner “Persephone” many miles away. What was he doing here? And how had he met such an untimely end?
Patrick Grant leaves the situation in the hands of the local police, led by an Inspector Manolakis, who is courteous and intelligent. However Patrick Grant is suspicious that his friend’s death might not have been accidental, and so is the Inspector. The obvious explanation is that Felix Lomax fell off the cliffs into the sea, and drowned. But Felix Lomax was known to be afraid of heights. Why would he have taken a walk along a narrow path on the side of a steep mountain overlooking the sea? And what was he doing there in the first place?
The novel seems to lose focus after this initial intrigue, and descends into a description of all the people Patrick Grant meets, and his daily holiday itinerary. Occasionally he muses about his lack of female companionship, and his friend’s widow, whom he heartily dislikes. He locates the godson Yannis without too much difficulty. The possible murder of Felix Lomax however seems to have been completely forgotten. Instead we seem to be following a rather humdrum saga about the life and loves of a rather jaded academic.
We follow all the various females Patrick Grant is attracted to, or repelled by, in his judgemental way. There is a mystery woman, Ursula: an attractive white-haired woman in her fifties who travels to Greece frequently. These two become companionable. A couple of the same age, George and Elsie, are also on the tour. They live in America, although George’s parents had been Greek. This visit is mostly a long-awaited dream visit for George, back to his family home. George’s wife tolerates, rather than enjoys, the trip. Others in the party flit in and out of the story, such as Celia and her friend Joyce, an overweight and rather dowdy looking woman, whom Patrick Grant takes pity on, and escorts to various places. An ex-undergraduate of Patrick Grant’s also appears. He is now a vicar, but just as wary of females as he had been when younger. Amused, Patrick Grant steers the eligible females away from him, and consoles one of the drabber women in the tour group who has a yen for an attractive young back-packing student Jill, who is involved with one of the young Greek deckhands. (Are you bored yet?) Patrick also gets to spend time with and console her too. He seems to be a compulsive people-watcher, noting the arrival in the group of two “queers”. Incidentally, this term as used in England of 1974 was outmoded even then, and its use was disrespectful. This was a time way before the term had been reclaimed with pride.
We read about visits to markets, shops, and inns, where Patrick Grant gets to know some of the local characters. We get to know this Oxford don quite well, but the action seems inconsequential and monotonous. Margaret Yorke herself had a great fondness for Crete, and this comes out as a little self-indulgent. The story should have been tighter. I was longing for a second body … or for something to happen.
What could really be going on here? At the time this novel was written, the political situation in Greece was potentially dangerous. We are also on an island which, like the West Country here, has historically had a reputation for smugglers, with plenty of coves along its rocky shores, each with hidden caves. Perhaps the story would be about arms dealing, or drugs; simple theft or stolen antiquities. All of these are possible lines to follow, or possible red herrings. Patrick is drawn to one boat whose owner does not seem to like foreigners watching what he is doing. Equally though the attraction for our middle-aged academic could be Jill.
Mostly the core of the novel does concentrate on the middle-aged characters. Margaret Yorke herself had been a driver in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during World War II. All these characters remember the Second World War, and reminisce about the parts they played in it. Several have been in the army, or the Women’s Royal Naval Service. We begin to doubt whether all of them are telling the truth.
When Patrick Grant puts together a couple of pieces about the mystery of his colleague’s death, he contacts Inspector Manolakis again. Following their suspicions, a trap is set in the tombs of Mycenae. This is quite an exciting episode, among the ancient ruins, where the acoustics play a clever part..
However, the explanation for this is told very quickly, with no attempt at dramatising the back story, or relating much of it to any of the characters we have been following. Most of the characters are fillers, with no connection to either Yannis, or the main mystery. Some, such as the frequently referred to deaf man Arthur Winterton, are completely off stage for the whole novel! After such a long exposition about Greece, its inhabitants, and the tourists, this all feels rushed and overly complicated. The facts are told as if they are in note form.
Margaret Yorke’s first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. Accordingly she wrote more than 40 crime novels, producing at least one full-length novel a year. She was chair of the “Crime Writers’ Association” and in 1999 won their Cartier “Diamond Dagger” for an outstanding lifetime contribution to the genre. She was best known for her stand-alone novels, and I personally prefer these to the Patrick Grant series.
Margaret Yorke is a pseudonym for Margaret Larminie, who was born in Compton, Surrey. She adopted a pen name in order to avoid readers’ confusion with a similarly-named published family member. She spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England when she was 13. During World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver. For five years she lived close to Stratford-upon-Avon working variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges. She was the first woman to ever work in Christ Church College library. Although widely travelled, for many years Margaret Yorke lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire, always being fascinated by Greece and Russia. Her obituary said that:
“Like the author, the novels were robust and uncompromising, and displayed sympathy for the underdog … she specialised in Viyella pyjamas, old-fashioned dressing-gowns and villages not unlike her own. In that sense she exemplified the type of crime fiction known as ”cosy“, but appearances were often deceptive. In fact, as in her fiction, Margaret Yorke was proof that what you saw was not what you got. She practised deception artfully and with style.”
Although not as well known, Margaret Yorke has been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who found themselves in extraordinary situations which may seem threatening, or simply horrific. But Margaret Yorke herself once said:
“authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers”.
This is a perceptive personal comment, and one which seems to be exemplified by this particular novel. Of the Patrick Grant novels “Dead in the Morning” is the first one, and a solid whodunnit. Mortal Remains however, is the penultimate one. It is not one of her best, and I would not really recommend it to lovers of the mystery genre, unless you have a particular yen for Greece.
May 11, 2021
Raymond Chandler wrote a book called The Big Sleep. This one by Margaret Yorke should perhaps have been called The Big Yawn. Yorke commits the unforgiveable sin of having virtually all the action happen offstage, so that what we are left with is a central character who has nothing to do but sit around in Greek cafes all day drinking coffee and musing on life, the universe, and why he doesn't fancy all the women around him enough to try and seduce them. (When he finally does meet a woman he fancies enough, he goes all moral on us and chickens out. Where is James Bond when you need him?)
The central character, Patrick Grant, is pretty unlikeable - a shallow, borderline misogynistic old fart of a male academic who makes snide remarks about the women he encounters, calling them fat, spotty, or whatever else he can think of to disparage them. At one point in the novel he fails to look at something, and as a result, avoids being shot dead. I found myself rather wishing he'd looked at it.
It's usually easy to work out who the murderer is in bad detective stories: just look for a character who is too nice to be believable and seems to have no reason for being in the novel at all, and there's your murderer. Applying this logic to Yorke's novel, I narrowed the field pretty early on to either of whom, following my method, could have been the murderer. Sure enough, it turned out to be . I then predicted and I was right again. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to murder mysteries, so if I managed to work all this out, I'm sure most of Margaret Yorke's readers must have done. Perhaps that's why she's not as well known a crime writer as Agatha Christie.
The central character, Patrick Grant, is pretty unlikeable - a shallow, borderline misogynistic old fart of a male academic who makes snide remarks about the women he encounters, calling them fat, spotty, or whatever else he can think of to disparage them. At one point in the novel he fails to look at something, and as a result, avoids being shot dead. I found myself rather wishing he'd looked at it.
It's usually easy to work out who the murderer is in bad detective stories: just look for a character who is too nice to be believable and seems to have no reason for being in the novel at all, and there's your murderer. Applying this logic to Yorke's novel, I narrowed the field pretty early on to either of whom, following my method, could have been the murderer. Sure enough, it turned out to be . I then predicted and I was right again. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to murder mysteries, so if I managed to work all this out, I'm sure most of Margaret Yorke's readers must have done. Perhaps that's why she's not as well known a crime writer as Agatha Christie.
January 29, 2026
It's important to realize that this book (and the others in the series) were written forty to fifty years ago. No cell phones. And a very different political atmosphere, the cold war was still cold. WWII was still a thorn in the side. And body shaming was obviously still perfectly fine with most people.
Each mention of the beefiness, the heaviness, the fatness of the pathetic women Patrick comes in contact with makes me cringe. He realizes at some point that even the unattractive people can have interests and ideas. Wow.
So, although much of the plot is interesting, and the travelogue entertaining (although how dated is not something i can determine); the mysteries in the last two were such that the solution would not be obvious to today's readers.
Approach with care.
Each mention of the beefiness, the heaviness, the fatness of the pathetic women Patrick comes in contact with makes me cringe. He realizes at some point that even the unattractive people can have interests and ideas. Wow.
So, although much of the plot is interesting, and the travelogue entertaining (although how dated is not something i can determine); the mysteries in the last two were such that the solution would not be obvious to today's readers.
Approach with care.
July 24, 2021
Academic Dr Patrick Grant takes the opportunity of a lecture tour in Crete for the college holidays. Out of the blue the body of his colleague Felix Lomax is washed up on the beach. Local authorities believe that it is a suicide but Patrick is not convinced that it a murder. After discovering that Lomax had been romantically involved with another woman for years he is convinced. I felt this is the weakest of the Dr Grant stories but author Margaret Yorke's makes the most of some exotic locations and you can't go wrong with a bit of smuggling. My one minor gripe is that there was so many academics on Greece and Crete that Patrick Grant seem to know but that's just nitpicking.
December 14, 2025
Well I wasn't wowed by this book, I have read another book with Dr Patrick Grant of Cambridge University and that wasn't bad but this book I wasn't that enamoured with. The story begins with Patrick going off on holiday to Greece and goes swimming in the sea and finds himself swimming alongside a dead man. But this dead man is a friend of his, Felix Lomax, who was supposed to be on a cruise ship giving lectures at that moment, so how come he was in the sea here and maybe not in the sea somewhere else if he had fallen overboard?
It starts off quite well I thought but as the book progressed it just wasn't really holding my attention and by the end I had lost all interest am sad to say as I had begun to skim read about a third of the way through when he was driving here and there with an elderly lady he had befriended whose name I've entirely forgotten now and it became a little long winded so much so that I turned to the ending instead, sigh!
It starts off quite well I thought but as the book progressed it just wasn't really holding my attention and by the end I had lost all interest am sad to say as I had begun to skim read about a third of the way through when he was driving here and there with an elderly lady he had befriended whose name I've entirely forgotten now and it became a little long winded so much so that I turned to the ending instead, sigh!
March 23, 2026
A Greek tragedy.
Another highly readable tale of detection by Patrick Grant, Oxford lecturer. This is my favourite of this series. Our Patrick is on holiday in Greece and when swimming encounters a drowned corpse. Horror upon horrors,, he discovers y the dead man is a colleague. Needless to say Patrick solves the murder. Along the way the descriptions of Greece are mouth wateringly seductive, making you want to go there. At once. Highly recommended.
Another highly readable tale of detection by Patrick Grant, Oxford lecturer. This is my favourite of this series. Our Patrick is on holiday in Greece and when swimming encounters a drowned corpse. Horror upon horrors,, he discovers y the dead man is a colleague. Needless to say Patrick solves the murder. Along the way the descriptions of Greece are mouth wateringly seductive, making you want to go there. At once. Highly recommended.
January 25, 2026
Another excellent story in this series.
I have loved these books, glad I found them ! I had my suspicions this time as to was involved but an intriguing plot and great descriptions of Greece and Crete.
I have loved these books, glad I found them ! I had my suspicions this time as to was involved but an intriguing plot and great descriptions of Greece and Crete.
December 31, 2025
Characters are nice enough but the pace is too slow and the characters are moving around so much that I lost track of the characters and the places they visited.
February 2, 2026
This was a fantastic story with two mysterious deaths to be solved and some further adventures with smugglers. I loved it.
March 16, 2026
I like this whole series. Very pleasant reading.
January 29, 2026
Dr Patrick Grant is on holiday In Crete only to discover while swimming the body of a fellow Don. One who is suppose to be on a lecture tour abroad a ship. Can his holiday get any worse.
An enjoyable modern cozy mystery
Originally published in 1974
An enjoyable modern cozy mystery
Originally published in 1974
July 4, 2025
A lot has happened in Crete since Zeus was born.
Oxford professor Patrick Grant is on vacation again, this time in Crete. He planned to travel with a colleague, but his friend suffers a fatal heart attack. So the amateur detective flies to Crete to fulfill his friend's last request. The friend has lost communication with his godson Yannis. It's 1974 and the political situation in Greece is volatile. Could the young man be in trouble? Grant plans to visit the small village where the family lives and find out.
He's traveling alone, but Crete is a favorite vacation spot for English travelers and Grant meets congenial fellow travelers. All are middle-aged or older. Young backpackers can't afford the comfortable hotels that cater to mature travelers and they usually avoid guided tours. At home or traveling, most of us prefer the company of people of our own generation.
Grant meets an attractive woman in her fifties who travels to Greece frequently. Later he meets her handsome Greek friend and understands why. Poignantly, the forty-something bachelor is cheered at the prospect of mature love. Is there still time for him?
A rather drab woman turns out to be pleasant company. She, too, in in Crete for a reason, her trip turns tragic. Everyone likes the friendly American George, whose parents were Greek. For him, this is a long-awaited trip back to a home he's never visited. His wife is an Englishwoman whose husband was killed there while serving in the Allied Forces.
The women learn that all three served as WRENS. During WWII, many young Englishwomen joined the women's military forces to free men for fighting. Even Princess Elizabeth wore a uniform and maintained military vehicles. Margaret Yorke was a WREN herself and knew the strength of the shared bond. But one woman's stories don't sound right. Is there an impostor on the tour bus?
Of course, Grant discovers a body, like he always does. It's another of his colleagues and this one has fallen from a cliff into the sea and drowned. It's officially an accidental death, but why was Felix Lomax in Crete when he was supposed to be a guest lecturer on a cruise ship? And what was a man notoriously afraid of heights doing on a narrow path on the side of a steep mountain?
Grant isn't satisfied and neither is local Inspector Manolakis. The Inspector is a young man - bright, friendly, and anxious to improve his excellent English. But he's also a shrewd policeman and he can smell a rat as well as the next cop.
Grant's efforts to locate Yannis are complicated by the reluctance of the local people to talk to strangers. The dangerous political situation accounts for some of it, but Crete had always been a smuggler's paradise. Guns, drugs, stolen merchandise, and illegal antiquities have all been smuggled through the rocky shores and countless caves. Now there's a boat whose owner strongly objects to nosy foreigners observing his activities.
Grant realizes that one of his new friends is in danger, but can he prevent a desperate person from murdering again?And while he's trying to protect that person, will he end up the victim himself? There are lots of secrets on Crete and at least one person is willing to kill as often as necessary to keep his/her secret from being exposed.
Margaret Yorke created characters whose memories of their young days remain vivid in middle-age. The WWII generation (men and women) lived through dramatic times. Their struggles to survive and defend their countries made them tough and resourceful and they carried those traits into old age. Both her villains and her heroes are survivors. Underestimating them would be the last mistake you make.
Patrick Grant is likable and the five-book series featuring him is above-average reading.
Oxford professor Patrick Grant is on vacation again, this time in Crete. He planned to travel with a colleague, but his friend suffers a fatal heart attack. So the amateur detective flies to Crete to fulfill his friend's last request. The friend has lost communication with his godson Yannis. It's 1974 and the political situation in Greece is volatile. Could the young man be in trouble? Grant plans to visit the small village where the family lives and find out.
He's traveling alone, but Crete is a favorite vacation spot for English travelers and Grant meets congenial fellow travelers. All are middle-aged or older. Young backpackers can't afford the comfortable hotels that cater to mature travelers and they usually avoid guided tours. At home or traveling, most of us prefer the company of people of our own generation.
Grant meets an attractive woman in her fifties who travels to Greece frequently. Later he meets her handsome Greek friend and understands why. Poignantly, the forty-something bachelor is cheered at the prospect of mature love. Is there still time for him?
A rather drab woman turns out to be pleasant company. She, too, in in Crete for a reason, her trip turns tragic. Everyone likes the friendly American George, whose parents were Greek. For him, this is a long-awaited trip back to a home he's never visited. His wife is an Englishwoman whose husband was killed there while serving in the Allied Forces.
The women learn that all three served as WRENS. During WWII, many young Englishwomen joined the women's military forces to free men for fighting. Even Princess Elizabeth wore a uniform and maintained military vehicles. Margaret Yorke was a WREN herself and knew the strength of the shared bond. But one woman's stories don't sound right. Is there an impostor on the tour bus?
Of course, Grant discovers a body, like he always does. It's another of his colleagues and this one has fallen from a cliff into the sea and drowned. It's officially an accidental death, but why was Felix Lomax in Crete when he was supposed to be a guest lecturer on a cruise ship? And what was a man notoriously afraid of heights doing on a narrow path on the side of a steep mountain?
Grant isn't satisfied and neither is local Inspector Manolakis. The Inspector is a young man - bright, friendly, and anxious to improve his excellent English. But he's also a shrewd policeman and he can smell a rat as well as the next cop.
Grant's efforts to locate Yannis are complicated by the reluctance of the local people to talk to strangers. The dangerous political situation accounts for some of it, but Crete had always been a smuggler's paradise. Guns, drugs, stolen merchandise, and illegal antiquities have all been smuggled through the rocky shores and countless caves. Now there's a boat whose owner strongly objects to nosy foreigners observing his activities.
Grant realizes that one of his new friends is in danger, but can he prevent a desperate person from murdering again?And while he's trying to protect that person, will he end up the victim himself? There are lots of secrets on Crete and at least one person is willing to kill as often as necessary to keep his/her secret from being exposed.
Margaret Yorke created characters whose memories of their young days remain vivid in middle-age. The WWII generation (men and women) lived through dramatic times. Their struggles to survive and defend their countries made them tough and resourceful and they carried those traits into old age. Both her villains and her heroes are survivors. Underestimating them would be the last mistake you make.
Patrick Grant is likable and the five-book series featuring him is above-average reading.
June 29, 2020
I started reading this partly by mistake. I came across the notes that I had written on the first of the series 'Dead in the Morning' and as I had obviously enjoyed it, searched my shelves and found this one. I was halfway through it when I also came across my notes for numbers 2 and 3 of the series which had not lived up to the first.
I am afraid that this one followed that trend for me.
Again the story follows Dr Grant abroad, this time to Greece. Rarely have I found shifting a story abroad to work better than it did at home ( although it might be a good excuse for a foreign break for the author , or am I just being cynical?).
The style of writing from 40 years ago that added something to the first story, grated a bit here and the story itself seemed over complicated. The authors liking for lots of characters didnt help and it was an effort to keep track of the storyline as many Greek names merged.
Strange episodes seemed out of place like the lesbian leanings of one of the young women and the two attempted seductions which seemed tagged in and played no real point in the telling of the story.
I am pleased that its over but cant really explain much of the plot.
Sorry, I will not be reading the last of the series.
I am afraid that this one followed that trend for me.
Again the story follows Dr Grant abroad, this time to Greece. Rarely have I found shifting a story abroad to work better than it did at home ( although it might be a good excuse for a foreign break for the author , or am I just being cynical?).
The style of writing from 40 years ago that added something to the first story, grated a bit here and the story itself seemed over complicated. The authors liking for lots of characters didnt help and it was an effort to keep track of the storyline as many Greek names merged.
Strange episodes seemed out of place like the lesbian leanings of one of the young women and the two attempted seductions which seemed tagged in and played no real point in the telling of the story.
I am pleased that its over but cant really explain much of the plot.
Sorry, I will not be reading the last of the series.
September 3, 2015
In this the fourth of the Patrick Grant series, Yorke didn't capture my interest as she has in the past.
December 12, 2025
Even the well crafted character of Dr. Patrick Grant could not save the poorly written plot of this story. A morass of extraneous detail that labored on to a rushed conclusion contributed.
December 27, 2025
3.5 stars
Dated but readable.
Dated but readable.
December 30, 2025
Quite dated and a bit of a random sudden end. So much casual misogyny about and obsession with women’s appearances it was a bit exhausting.
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