The Judgement of Strangers

Roth #2

by Andrew Taylor

The second novel of the trilogy is the story of David Byfield, a widowed parish priest with a dark past and a darker future. Set in 1970 in a commuter village near London, the novel explores the consequences of Byfield's second marriage.

Roth is not so much a village as a suburban state of mind. But the past clings and still has the power to affect the present. The menopausal Audrey Oliphant, churchwarden and spinster, nurses a hopeless passion for her parish priest. Lady Youlgreave slides towards death in the company of her equally senile dogs, Beauty and Beast. The big house, now a wreck of its former grandeur, has been sold to a pair of hippies, brother and sister, who have their own secrets and their own power to disturb. The vicar's new wife is fascinated by a Victorian poet-priest with local connections - Francis Youlgreave, author of The Judgement of Strangers, opium addict and suicide. And there are the children at the Vicarage: Michael Appleyard, a watchful boy with a taste for Sherlock Holmes, and Rosemary, Byfield's teenage daughter, as beautiful - and as strange - as an angel.

Then the murders begin, and the mutilations, and the echoes of past crimes and blasphemies.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Andrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim. He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994).

His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice. His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Original English title: The Judgement of Strangers

short review for busy readers:
A cosy mystery that's more serious than your average cosy. Part 2 of a trilogy (Roth Series) that is probably best read together. Lovely, calm narrative voice. Smooth writing. Fairly low stakes...until the end. If you like small English villages with a hint of the sinister, this one (or the series) would be a good choice.

in detail:
It's 1970 and Mr Byfield is the village of Roth's vicar.

He's recently married his 2nd wife after being a widower for around 10 years. His teenage daughter, Rosemary, isn't happy with her new step-mum, and neither are other ladies of the village who are used to having their handsome churchman to themselves.

Especially not one particular one with psychopathic tendencies.

What this novel does very well is showcase the fact that church people are people, with failures and desires and biases, just like everyone else.

It also shows a changing England. One where traditionalist tendencies butt heads with drug and hedonistic cultures, and ye old village festival is the highlight of the year...but it also brings out all the tensions bubbling under the surface.

The only problem as far as a mystery goes, is the very low stakes. There's something going on -- perhaps a lot going on -- but it's all happening outside of the view of our vicar. He's getting glimpses but is in the dark about a lot of it. That makes it rather "what's the fuss about??" until there's suddenly a murder and the police get involved.

As much as the author says any book in this trilogy can be read as a stand alone, you do get the feeling you're only seeing part of a bigger narrative.

"The Judgement of Strangers" is fine for what it is, but probably much better if you know the 1st or 3rd book in the series.

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Disclaimer*
I was halfway through this book before I realised I wasn't reading the book I thought I was. I believed I was reading The Four Last Things and so I reviewed what I was reading with the expectation that the plotline of The Four Last Things would eventually appear. I made comments asking where the characters mentioned in the description for The Four Last Things were, comments that I now know were unfair to this book - obviously those expected characters and storylines weren't going to appear in this book - so I've deleted what I had previously written and will write a new review to reflect my revised thoughts on the book.

27/9 - I was going to start this book all over again so I could give my thoughts as they came to me as I was reading, and so treat this reading the same as any other reading. I wanted to try to ignore what I'd thought of the story, if not the characters (I don't think my opinion of David is going to change with a re-read), when I first read it, because those opinions weren't entirely fair - I would imagine most of my confusion regarding what was going on would be solved by my reading of the first book in the series.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. I have until 10:47 tonight to finish it, which would be fine except for one thing - I'm going out for my birthday dinner with my friends tonight, and while I may be back before the deadline I don't think it'll be hours before so I'm going to have do some express reading this afternoon, before I leave for the train, and express reading doesn't leave time for re-reading half a book just so I can see it through new eyes.

If this were a physical book I'd just hang onto it for an extra day and pay the fine, but this is an eBook and my library has a ridiculous policy of six day loans for eBooks and no ability to re-borrow. Why do I get three weeks and the ability to re-borrow twice, in some cases giving me the book for up to nine weeks, with physical books, but only six days for an eBook? I just can't understand why they think an eBook can be read any faster than a physical one. Another reason for me to stay away from eBooks and something for my library to consider because they have been systematically replacing their physical books with eBook copies over the last few years. If they want their customers to use the eBook facilities they need to make them more user-friendly than they are now.

Right, now back to the book review...
Thinking back, even knowing what I now know about the characters, I think the first 100 pages, or so, were too slow. I described it as feeling like a 'small English village/hamlet' drama, full of small town personalities and small town dramas, not really particularly interesting material for a book, especially not one that's been billed as part of a mystery or thriller series.

Page 30 - Insanitary? I believe the word's unsanitary.

Around this time in the story I began to get a sinister feeling from Rosemary, and made the comment that despite this feeling I didn't think that she would turn out to be 'Angel'. How wrong, and therefore funny, that comment seems to me now.

The following has been simply copy/pasted straight from my original review because my feelings about David and the scenes I'm describing haven't changed.

Right, not a big fan of David. So, he married the woman he was jealous over (Vanessa) and they've gone off on their honeymoon. Vanessa is a bit nervous about having sex with David for the first time, mostly, she claims, because she didn't have sex with her dead husband all that much (he liked to read late and she liked to sleep early).

Reading between the lines (not that Vanessa's being all that oblique about her feelings, not to anyone except David, it seems) it seems that Vanessa has found no pleasure whatsoever in any of the sex David has 'encouraged' her to have. She keeps saying she wants to please him, but at the same time the morning after their nightly sexual adventures (yeah, right!, from the description it's more like "kiss, kiss, in, oooh I'm done, out" while she hugs him tight to herself and rubs his back) she's always 'sore' and eventually, after a week of this asks for a break because she 'thinks' she's about to get her period.

His response to her being 'sore' (no one but him thinks she means in any place other than her genitals or internally) is that they've got pulled muscles from all this physical activity and they'll get used to it. His response to her not wanting sex due to the possibility of her period appearing is "Oh, that's okay with me. I'm fine with having sex during your period, how about you?" He seems to have forgotten that she also said she was 'sore' from all the 'fun' they've been having, he's just thinking about how to talk her into having sex with him again, no matter what she's feeling. In the end he has to listen to her and goes to sleep unsatisfied and possibly questioning the marriage (and this is still the 'honeymoon period', how's he going to manage the 'we've been married for years and are sick of each other period' that most couples enter eventually?).

David's not cruel or horrible, he's just completely clueless when it comes to women - he neglects to think of his daughter's feelings when it comes to him getting married (kind of out of the blue, too) and it doesn't seem to occur to him to think of whether his new wife is enjoying their marital relations. To be continued...

I have found it interesting looking back and seeing where many of the characters from The Four Last Things came from, metaphorically. At page 150 I still don't know how Rosemary goes from the teenager she is to the serial child killer (and eater, EEK!), what happened to Audrey to turn her into a crazy old lady with a prophecy of doom for Sally Appleyard, or what happened to Vanessa to make David a widow twice over (is that supposed to say something about David as a member of the clergy, that his wives keep dying?). With all those unanswered questions I have to believe that the next 130 pages will be more exciting than the last 150. To be continued...

28/9 - I didn't quite finish in time, but I did still finish. I also learnt a very useful lesson, that when I borrow a book from the library (which is readable only on Adobe Digital Editions) that if you happen to be reading a book at the time when it's supposed to expire you will be able to continue reading it WAAAYYY past the expiration date. I thought that when the expiration time passed ADE would come up with an error message the next time I tried to turn the page. That didn't happen, thank goodness as I still had about 50 pages (the 50 best pages at that) to go.

SPOILER ALERT

Despite, as I said, being the best pages of the book I still felt let down by those 50 pages because I was really wanting a decent explanation for what happened to Rosemary. A mentor of David's reminds David that Rosemary had shown sociopathic tendencies from the time she was a toddler, and so her homicidal behaviour wasn't really a surprise. I was really surprised by that comment as there is no mention of David (or anyone else) being particularly concerned by Rosemary's behaviour. In a few scenes he tries to 'talk' to her, but doesn't make much of an effort when she proves difficult to crack. If was worried about the mental stability of my child I wouldn't take silence or "Yes, I'm fine." for an answer. I would want to know more, dig a bit deeper into what might be troubling my child. I know it's set in the late sixties and early seventies, but still.

I also wanted to know what, if anything, the consequences of Rosemary's acts were. She murdered two people and mutilated a cat and there's no mention of any kind of incarceration, and by the time she appears in the first book (set in the 90s) she's free and claiming that her father believes she's dead. How did that happen? Did that happen? If that's not how it happened, how did she manage to escape her father's notice? I would assume, after two murders, David would be pretty attentive to her whereabouts. The Judgement of Strangers didn't really deliver the answers I was looking for after reading The Four Last Things and due to an extremely drawn out and tedious opening 150 pages I have to give this 2 stars. I hope the third book in the series surprises by being worth more than 3 stars.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

The second volume in the Roth trilogy really needs to be read as the second volume; although I haven't read the third yet I'll issue a warning to all to read these books in order. Without the first volume to lay clues for this book I don't think it would be nearly as potent at being a thriller. Knowing where the characters end up about a quarter of a century later really adds the edge to this book. As a standalone it wouldn't be nearly as powerful.

This book takes place in Roth, once a picturesque village and now a suburb of London, in 1970 and is narrated by the vicar of Roth, David Byfield, who appears as a minor character in The Four Last Things. One of the major characters in the first book is Michael Appleyard who appears here as an eleven year old.

This time, although I am wondering what happens in the third part of the trilogy (which goes backwards in time again and Taylor has again left pointers to the kind of thing that will happen in that book and has already happened to the characters), I'm mainly finding myself wanting to go back to the first book and piece together the parts that I didn't know enough to understand at the time. Having read these books from the library means I'm going to have to go and hunt it out before I can stop thinking about it.

Unless the third volume of the trilogy lets me down, and I can't see it doing so as it won the CWA's Ellis Peters Historical Dagger a couple of years back, this is definitely a classic and classy work.

[Bettina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit is het tweede deel van de Roth trilogie en speelt zich zo'n twintig jaar eerder af dan deel 1, want we zitten nu in 1970.
Anglicaans priester David Byfield is weduwnaar en woont met zijn tienerdochter in het dorp Roth. Hij trouwt opnieuw, met Vanessa, maar dit huwelijk valt tegen. Ondertussen zijn er allerlei rare zaken en de spanningen lopen hoog op.
In het dorp woont de familie Youlgreave, en een van deze familie was rond de eeuwwisseling een zwart schaap. Priester Francis Youlgreave werd beschuldigd van satanische praktijken, het offeren van dieren en zelfs erger.
Vanessa is geïnteresseerd in Francis Youlgreave en zou graag een boek over hem schrijven en kijkt de papieren in die de oude lady Youlgreave in huis heeft liggen. Ondertussen wordt een kat vermoord, in de stijl van Francis Youlgreave, komen er nieuwe mensen in het dorp wonen die de familie Byfield niet onberoerd laten en zal er uiteindelijke tragedie ontvouwen waarbij twee mensen dood gaan, een in een inrichting terecht komt en een iemand in de gevangenis.

In dit tweede deel wordt de reden duidelijk van de zaak in het eerste deel. Opnieuw goed uitgewerkte personages en heel goed opgebouwde spanning.

[Hermien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm looking forward to #3 now to put it all together.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second in his Roth Trilogy, this takes us back to 1969 where David Ryland, who we met as an elderly man in the mid-1990s in The Four Last Things, is a widowed, soon to be remarried, parish priest in the village of Roth. His tenuous peace is shattered first by glamorous publisher Vanessa, and then, even more profoundly, by the arrival of hippieish Toby and his somewhat disturbed sister Joanna. (There’s  a bit of a Kinks' Sunny Afternoon vibe to those passages). Although technically a crime novel, it's a slow burn, and the creeping sense of unease and sexual guilt reminded me somewhat of L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between, though the two novels have little in common other than a similar atmosphere of impending doom. On to book three, which goes yet further back in time but hopefully resolves a few unanswered questions.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself conflicted at the end of this book. On one hand, I inhaled it. Although the narrator, or main character, was not terribly sympathetic, he was so real in his egotism, intelligence, and dry humor, that I was mesmerized by his situation and his story. The plot cleverly mixed hints of creepy surrealism with every day neurotic problems so that you're not always sure which is leading to the inevitable disaster. Mostly, the characters were just so real that I felt as though I knew them personally. But I was disappointed by the ending. Having read the first book, I thought that this book would shed more light than it did on the events of its predecessor. Certainly it sheds a little light on those events, but not enough to explain fully the monstrous happenings in tome number one. When, at the end of this novel, one of the characters comments casually of the murderer that he/she "was always a sociopath" (don't remember the exact language, but words to that effect) it seemed a crashing dismissal of all the carefully developed "whys" that had come before. All the business about the mad ancestor poet whose evil spirit supposedly permeated his modern-day descendents went pfffttt, was dismissed as if it had never been brought up. Well, perhaps more will be understood at the end of book 3, which I intend to plunge into immediately. I certainly know that, disappointed or not at the end, I will enjoy the rich psychological journey. And for sure I know that Andrew Taylor is a great discovery and I intend to read many more of his books. I don't understand why he's now more popular in this country.

[Doug Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? This book is amazing. It is the second novel in the Roth Trilogy, the first novel being the Four Last Things. In the first book of the series we meet Angel, a very troubled woman with an agenda. The second book takes us back in time to the 1970's and tries to eventually explain what happened to make Angel into the woman that she is in the Present day.

An unfortunate dinner party begins the novel as Richard Bynum meets an elegant woman named Vanessa and begins to desire here. He is the vicar of the local church and eventually convinces Vanessa to become his wife. She moves in to the vicarage but is ill suited to parish life, she is a publisher and keeps her job in the city. Unfortunately, the appearance of Vanessa will lead to disaster, as one member of the town dies under suspicious circumstances, what is a midnight fall or something more sinister? Another member of the town becomes slightly unhinged when her cat is found murdered and hung from the porch of the vicarage. What is happening in the town of Roth?

And the books sets you up for the third enstallment, the Office of the Dead, as we learn about Roth history and the mad poet Francis Youlgreave who deteriorated later in life and threw himself from a tower window. The truth behind this tale will be revealed in the third book.

They are impossible to put down and each read captures you and makes you long for the next book in the series.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has kept me breathless with anticipation for more about Roth and Rosington. I can't wait to read the last novel. Hopefully the final book will tell more about the origins of Angel. The author is very readable and keeps the reader hanging on to every word and thought. I am still amazed that I ever picked up the first book, since it isn't something I would have bought for myself. Luckily the library offered it, and I am able to get the rest of the books, also. I know the final novel will be as entertaining and well written as the first two. Who would have thought that the Church of England would be this interesting?

[Martine Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anything, this second part to the Roth trilogy is even better than part one. This was so gripping I was only able to drag myself away because my kindle occasionally ran down. The sexual obsession at its heart takes us to the most marvellous places, and very much to the edge of my seat. Modern Gothic, with all its trappings of Anglican theology, grubby streets and tortured outsiders, rarely gets as good as this.

[Steph (loves water) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book two of the series, just fantastic. What an outstanding effort.

[Moravian1297 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the second book in the 'Roth' series, 'The Judgement of Strangers' being even more of a slow burner and 'soap opera' than the first, I did strangely find that I enjoyed this one, and I'm not altogether sure why?

Nothing of note really happened in this novel until Audrey Oliphant's cat, Lord Peter, was butchered and beheaded, then strung up by its tail in the porch of the church. None of this happened however, until we were well into, if indeed near the very end of chapter sixteen. Before which, all we'd really experienced were the everyday activities in the lives of the characters, but amazingly this hadn't bored me at all, I'd found it was way less tedious than I’d have expected and I’d been rather enjoying it, finding what would usually appear to be mundane events, somewhat interesting. As we slowly meandered along, getting to know the characters and their routines, I suppose there was always an underlying sense of dread, as you just knew that the peace and tranquillity of the quiet London suberb, was inevitably going to shatter. Especially when the likes of the main protagonist, the married Reverend David Byfield, started pumping his young (too young for him at any rate!), junkie neighbour, Joanna Clifford! Oh dear, things like that never end well, and indeed they didn't.

The 'Roth' series, obviously suffers from the same problems that blight Andrew Taylor's 'Lydmouth' series, in that each book has to be taken on its own individual merit, and judged on a case by case basis, making both series very much a hit or a miss. Even although the subject matter in each book is much and such the same, the novels all experience very different outcomes of enjoyment for me, the reader. Where we even have some of the same characters spanning both the first and second books in the 'Roth' series, bizarrely however, I found them, flat, boring and one dimensional in the former, but they really seemed to come to life and were much more interesting in the latter, go figure?!

The characters in 'The Judgement of Strangers', as well as being more interesting, had much more charisma than those in the first book, and were also way more believable, and this time, I took to them like a duck to water. As with most Andrew Taylor books, all the characters seemed to have a somewhat salacious side, unfortunately however, some more than others, as we see when Joanna Clifford's highly egregious, smooth talking, Herion dealing brother, Toby Clifford rapes the Reverend David Byfield's daughter and resident psychopath, Rosemary Byfield. I will also single out another character that spans both the first and second books, the only figure from the former that I found interesting, that of the afore mentioned, Audrey Oliphant. She was such a disaster that you couldn't help but admire her, even although her manner and deeds were entirely cringe worthy, she was however, someone whom had to rise from bed every day, knowing she had to be her. The butt of nearly every joke and the type of personality that just begs to be bullied, setting herself up as a target, because of the ease of her baiting. A lad I formerly knew at work, once asked me, exasperated, why do people always pick on me? Because you bite! I replied gently, ignore them and sooner rather than later, they'll start to throw you back unmolested, ladies and gentlemen, Audrey Oliphant.

I now have all my fingers crossed that book three in the 'Roth' trilogy is along the same lines as book two and not book one, but unfortunately, I have my doubts.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am descoperit cadavrul mutilat al lordului Peter în dimineața de joi, 13 august 1970. A fost prima victimă a unui șir de evenimente care au început spre sfârșitul verii trecute, când am cunoscut-o pe Vanessa Forde, sau chiar mai înainte, începând cu Audrey Oliphant și Istoricul localității Roth.
Fiecare parohie are o Audrey Oliphant – uneori, chiar mai multe. Viețile lor se desfășoară în jurul bisericii parohiale și, într-un anumit fel, Biserica Anglicană gravitează în jurul lor. Era deci inevitabil ca ea să fie un oaspete obișnuit al vicariatului și mi-e rușine să spun că nu întotdeauna am primit-o atât de călduros cum ar fi trebuit. De asemenea, mă enerva faptul că motanul de la Tudor Cottage considera vicariatul cea de-a doua casă a lui, înfruntând traficul de pe șoseaua principală pentru a ajunge aici.
— Practic, domnișoara Oliphant locuiește aici, remarcă fiica mea, Rosemary, după o vizită deosebit de lungă. Și, dacă nu vine ea, își trimite pisica în loc.
— Face o treabă strașnică pentru noi, am subliniat eu. Și pentru parohie.
— Dragă părinte, încerci și reușești să găsești ce este mai bun în fiecare, nu-i așa? Rosemary se uită la mine și zâmbi. Dar aș vrea să ne lase în pace. E mult mai plăcut când suntem numai noi doi.
Audrey avea aproape cincizeci de ani și nu era măritată. A locuit în Roth toată viața. Casa ei, Tudor Cottage, se afla pe pajiște – în partea din nord, între minimarketul lui Malik și Queen’s Head. Grădina din fața casei, de mărimea unui pat mai mare, era despărțită de trotuar printr-un grilaj de fier. Dincolo de poartă se afla o firmă vopsită proaspăt în fiecare an.

[Ezekiel Benzion · Rating 4 out of 5]

The middle book of the Roth Trilogy, The Judgement of Strangers develops the stories of the characters the reader met in the first book. Since I am reading the series in order, I have a deep appreciation of what the author is attempting. The first book could have stood alone as a thriller, if the reader is okay with gaps in the stories of the main characters and content with the shadows of mystery over their past. But by continuing into the past via the next book in the series, one begins to understand the pain and damage of each main character in the tales. The author has created a small community in which matters of family, faith and faithfulness are deeply explored. No one emerges unscathed as modern and historic evils unfold. Enough mystery remains to make me want to read the third book in the series.
One quibble: to resolve all the traumatic events in one diagnosis seems too easy. It would have been more powerful to let the evil inclinations be more diffuse in this small society, all swirling around the clergy and the church.

[Andrea Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So you think the second in a a trilogy should start where the last one left off. Not in the world of Andrew Taylor where we now head back in time to find some clues to the first book but here too we know too much but nothing at all.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too slow.

It took forever to get any where. Suggestions were made. Things were supposed to happen but the worst didn’t happen until the last 10% of the book. The suspense, although I could see the effort, was lacking

[Martin Bussey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although we’re told you can read the trilogy in any order this one is key to the overall plot and I’d read it before the third one. The macabre features fairly prominently and some less than attractive characters keep the attention when the tempo flags

[Penny G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book two in the Roth trilogy was so much more engaging than the first. Now I’m looking forward to reading the third and finishing the series.

[Lily Holliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second in the series - very good psychological development.

[Elizabeth Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated and strangely narrated by an angry sounding reader but gripping for all that. Enjoyed it.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the first book,this one a little less but still a very “good read”. Looking forward to #3

[Amanda Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

First person narration can be difficult and for me there was too much focus on the narrator's 'sexual struggles ' . However still a thriller I enjoyed

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Judgement of Strangers is the second book in Andrew Taylor's Roth Trilogy, a series of mysteries that works its way backward through the twentieth century. The entire trilogy is an interesting exploration of the roots of crime and "evil" and the impact that our actions can have on the people around us, even when we aren't aware of it.

Judgement is an interesting mystery, but I found it most enjoyable in the descriptions of the characters living in the village of Roth. David Byfield, who also appears in the first book, The Four Last Things, provides the main point of view for the second and is a complex and "real" character in that it is impossible to completely like or dislike him. David straddles the "gray" area that most of us do: his intentions are good, but he is often tripped up by his faults and inadequacies. In addition, he is a product of his upbringing - the mid-twentieth century - and that is reflected in his opinions and actions, some of which aren't very likeable by today's standards.

The second book in a trilogy is often problematic because the reader knows that the definitive beginning and ending take place in other books. In my opinion, if there is a fault to be found with Judgement it is that it stands too well on its own and doesn't add enough information to the overall story Taylor has begun. That is a minor quibble, however and Judgement is definitely a worthwhile read.

[Costea Constantin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judecata străinilor face parte dinTrilogia Roth, fiind al doilea volum din serie, având în centrul atenţiei familiile Appleyard şi Byfield. Interesant de reţinut la acest roman este acţiunea lui de sine stătătoare, care, deşi se leagă de primul volum, poate fi urmărită și înțeleasă pe deplin un cititor care nu a făcut cunoștință cu primul volum. Acţiunea începe în micul sat Roth, care începuse să fie privit mai degrabă ca o suburbie a Londrei, dar de care oamenii nu prea știau. În această suburbie facem cunoştinţă cu David Byfield, un preot-paroh al satului, văduv de 10 ani, un om al cărui trecut se dovedeşte a fi extrem de întunecat. Din nefericire pentru el, viitorul nu îi rezervă ceva mai bun. Toată acţiunea ia amploare în momentul în care David se hotărăşte să o ia de soţie pe Vanessa, o femeie ale cărei gânduri erau departe de un mariaj cu vicarul, dar care știe cât de greu i-ar fi să piardă pe cineva. Vanessa este extrem de pasionată de un poet local, Francis Youlgreave, un poet care, împins pe culmile disperării, ajunsese să se sinucidă, dar a cărui putere se manifestă, se pare, și dincolo de mormânt. Casa cea mare din Roth, locul în care Francis s-a sinucis, este ocupată la scurt timp de către alte două personaje cu o agendă ascunsă, o soră şi un frate pe nume Joanna şi Toby Clifford, a căror venire declanşează acelaşi lanţ de evenimente din trecut. O carte care reuşeşte să păstreze suspansul până la final, o carte plină de romanţă, crime şi o mică atingere a paranormalului.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers of The Four Last Things, the first book in Andrew Taylor's Roth Trilogy, know how Rosemary Byfield turned out, but to know why, it's necessary to delve into the prequel, The Judgement of Strangers. The Reverend David Byfield is a bit player in TFLT, but in Strangers, he takes center stage. Byfield is a priest who's skating on thin ice. He's been celibate for ten years, since his wife died, but by now he's almost desperate for sex. His judgement is badly impaired by his desires, and Rosemary, his teenaged daughter, is badly in need of a level of attention and guidance that her father is not prepared to provide. David has retreated to a country parish after committing an undisclosed trangression while teaching in London. Not all of his current parishioners are, shall we say, in their right minds, and matters slowly but surely spin out of control.

Author Taylor is a master at character development, his plots evolving from the strengths and weaknesses of his protagonists. His characters are people we've all met before, incorporating facets of our own personalities, making it easy to empathize with their choices and decisions. Readers who enjoy getting lost simple yet enthralling plots are sure to enjoy this trilogy.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has one of the best opening lines I've ever read: "We found the mutilated corpse of Lord Peter in the early evening of Tuesday, the 13th of August, 1970." Needless to say, it's not that Lord Peter. It is the second book of a trilogy, and in spite of the author's assurances that each of the three stands alone, and that they can be read in any order, it definitely has a feeling of incompleteness. The trilogy was written in reverse chronological order--the first volume being set in 1995, this one in 1970, and the third in 1960. This one is also narrated first-person by an Anglican priest who is guilt-ridden over his lack of sexual self-control, a situation which makes me (and is probably intended to make me) squirm. I will probably go on to read the first volume, and then the third, since the author is very skillful; but I'm not feeling an overwhelming compulsion.

[Estibaliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Segunda parte de la Trilogía de Roth, bastante distinta de la primera en su planteamiento, pero igualmente fascinante. Esta vez la acción se desplaza en el tiempo a los años 70, momento en el que conoceremos los antecedentes de algunos personajes clave de la primera entrega, en una historia que destaca por la naturaleza de su protagonista: un hombre de religión de marcada sensualidad, que sorprende por lo que de él conocemos por la primera parte, en lo que a su evolución personal se refiere.
El final me ha resultado un tanto abrupto en cierto sentido, aunque encaja con el resto de la historia, y por eso mismo la nota se inclina en esta ocasión hacia el 3 1/2, pero no obstante se trata de una interesante propuesta de novela negra, original y recomendable.

Lástima que parece ser que la tercera parte no se ha editado en España.

[Leslie Zampetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second - or should one say middle? - book of Taylor's trilogy reveals ever more of the details so tantalizingly glimpsed in The Four Last Things. Like Hearn's Tales of the Otori series, some readers will prefer to enjoy the series backwards - starting with the latest book and working their back to the beginning - rather than enjoying the books in order. David Byfield is the protagonist and central character here, and Taylor deftly creates a story which both explains and foreshadows the first and third works in his trilogy. One could also enjoy TJS as a stand-alone work, much as TFLT.

Read-alikes would include Hoeg, Grimes (Emma Graham books), and especially Rendell (writing as Barbara Vine).

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this - what struck me early on was the difference in pace between this slow-building English rural middle-class churchy novel and the books I'd been reading previously (i.e. the thrill-a-minute Dean Koontz I'd enjoyed previously). It felt a lot more 'grown-up' a novel in the early stages.

It soon started to move a bit more quickly - progressing from a plodding book about a quiet English village to a vicar lusting after his seventeen year old daughter in a wet t-shirt, via someone sacrificing a cat. The ending was odd, but tied a lot of strands of the story together, and I was ultimately satisfied by the reading experience. I'm not sure it's fair to say it reminded me of PJ James, but it did.

[Book Tea 🫖 with Jai · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Byfield, a Church of England minister. Has a new wife, name Vanessa. Vanessa's starts researching into the life of the mad poet-priest, Francis Youlgreave, buried in the parish church. His daughter Rosemary, is infatuation with the handsome young man who has just moved into Roth Park, the village's big manor house.

The Judgement of Strangers was a great squeal to the first book. I enjoyed the characters and suspense. Judgement of Strangers is about a man name David Byfield, a widowed parish priest, who finds his life turned upside down in a web of lies, deceit, crime and sex