Flight of a Witch

The Felse Investigations #3

by Ellis Peters

"There is a kind of beauty that produces wolf whistles, and another kind of beauty that creates silence all about it, taking the voices out of men's mouths and the breath out of their throats."

Annet Beck's beauty is of the second order and it worries her parents so much that they guard her as closely as a prisoner...until the rainy Thursday in October when she disappears.

Annet is last seen vanishing over the crest of Hallowmount, a hill in the remote Welsh Country believed to be the domain of witches. Five days later she mysteriously reappears, claiming that she was gone for only two hours.

Detective Inspector George Felse doesn't believe in witchcraft, but he does believe in love and he never underestimates its power, especially when it may have led to murder...

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

232 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

A pseudonym used by Edith Pargeter.

Edith Mary Pargeter, OBE, BEM was a prolific author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern. Born in the village of Horsehay (Shropshire, England), she had Welsh ancestry, and many of her short stories and books (both fictional and non-fictional) were set in Wales and its borderlands.

During World War II, she worked in an administrative role in the Women's Royal Naval Service, and received the British Empire Medal - BEM.

Pargeter wrote under a number of pseudonyms; it was under the name Ellis Peters that she wrote the highly popular series of Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries, many of which were made into films for television.

Reviews

[Denise Spicer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young schoolteacher Tom Kenyon is instantly smitten by 18-year-old Annet Beck, daughter of his landlord. She goes missing for five days and won’t say where she’s been. Detective Inspector George Felse, father of one of Tom’s students, becomes involved when it seems young Annet might be involved in a robbery/murder. The characters are somewhat interesting but not entirely believable, nor is the plot and its solution. The author is perhaps too concerned with descriptions of the local setting and attendant landscape (Welsh countryside). Fans of the authors Caedfel series may be disappointed

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flight of a Witch by Ellis Peters.

This was a haunting tale of a remarkably beautiful young woman (Annet Beck) who held secrets deep within. Secrets that led her and an innocent man to deaths door and beyond. This was also a tale of another man. Someone who looked on at a distance. A man who held his feelings for Annet hidden, or so he thought, from others.
I loved reading this story that comes from the imaginations of Ellis Peters. An author who, in my opinion, has few if any equals. My most high recommendation to all mystery lovers especially for those looking for depth in characters and superb quality of writing.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely written, kind of atmospheric, but a little bit caught up in itself. The characters were well distinguished from each other; yet somehow it was still sometimes hard to figure out which point of view was being told. It was interesting to see how very delicately the whole society trod to try to preserve whatever was possible of a young girl's reputation - definitely dating this book to its 1965 publication.

[Natalie aka Tannat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one took a little while for me to get into because it sort of sidles up to the mystery and is mostly written from the perspective of a young teacher, Tom, and it takes a while to figure out where the book is going. Once it gets there, I was pretty engrossed in the mystery, although I was a bit disappointed with the way the author passes judgement on the young girl, Annet. This book was written in the 1960s and I suppose the author could have been putting words in Tom's head, but it sounded like it was coming from outside the book and to a modern reader it just sounds so, so wrong. I'll put the quote in spoiler tags because it does give away a key point in the mystery.

The author lays the blame on the affair entirely on the young girl:

She wasn’t his victim; he was hers. She had destroyed him by loving him. If she’d never even noticed him, except as a middle-aged man, a father figure, he’d have mastered his feelings for her. But she’d opened to him, she’d loved him, he’d been forced to turn longing and dream into action. No, Annet was nobody’s victim, she had done what she had chosen to do, taken him because he was the weakest, the most helpless, the least effective, the unhappiest of all the men it might have been.

Squick. The girl was maybe 17 when they started their affair.

Edith Pargeter manages to fit in a bit of matchmaking like in the Cadfael books but things are much more nebulous here.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Annet Beck has the kind of breathtaking beauty that strikes people dumb, and young teacher Tom Kenyon, a lodger in her parents;' house, is no exception. When Annet disappears, last seen on the Hallowmount, an historic border site with an eerie reputation, Tom determines to find out where and why: Annet is adamant she's been away a mere two hours but there is irrefutable evidence that she has been gone for five days. What is the explanation? Deliberate deceit? Amnesia? Or witchcraft?

"Tom's amateur investigations get nowhere until Detective Inspector George Felse finds cause to connect those missing five days with his enquiry into a death. The subsequent search takes the two men along a trail of betrayal, robbery and murder to a deadly confrontation among the ancient stones of the Hallowmount ..."
~~back cover

This was a great book! The author carefully draws a picture of life in a rural small town, the social order, etc. Nothing apparently out of the ordinary, except for Annet's incredible beauty. Which she seems to handle maturely. She's the perfect girl -- almost too good to be true, minding all her parents' restrictive hemmings in with seemingly no concern, keeping every man and boy at arms' length without seeming to notice that she's being approached.

And then she disappears. And it all starts to unravel ...

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars was that I felt it was a bit top-heavy on the characterizations, and the ruminations about how people's minds worked. Just a touch too much of the Henry James for my taste. But a lovely book in spite of that flaw -- a real page turner!

[Verena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flight of a Witch by Ellis Peters differs from her historical novels set in the early 12th century featuring Brother Cadfael. Decades ago I enjoyed reading this mystery series with its abundance of colorful descriptive details of Medieval England. I doubted this book, set in the mid-20th century, would measure up to those mysteries. Fortunately, it is a satisfying tale, lush with description of the Welsh and English border country, and characters representing "modern" as well as traditional British types.

One evening, a lovely 17 year-old girl is last seen climbing to the summit of Hallowmount, a hill steeped in ancient lore. Annet is missing for five days. Because of her previous attempt to leave home, her parents and a boarder are reluctant to tell anyone of her disappearance. But a murder during her absence makes her a suspect, and when Annet returns and refuses to explain, her distraught parents, concerned neighbors, would-be suitors, and a compassionate detective need answers. There are enough logical suspects and red herrings to keep the story interesting, entertaining and mysterious to the end.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

#3 in the Inspector George Felse mystery series set in rural Wales. Good mystery involving a girl's mysterious disappearance that becomes a murder/robbery investigation. A lot of red herrings along the way, but a story that starts slowly but holds your attention.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flight of a Witch is nominally a mystery, but like Ellis Peters' other novels, is more than that. In this book from the Felse Investigations series, Peters looks at love and family, but more importantly, the wisdom and courage needed to love well. Many of her characters fail this test through a lack of courage, wisdom, or imagination; or due to fear and passivity. One was described as "a good woman, but not a good wife. She was kind but not considerate… lavish but not generous, intelligent but without imagination" (Kindle). Ouch!

Like most (all?) of Peters' books, the narrators in Flight of a Witch are male, but they are observant, contemplative, and kind. They have agency, but they allow the female characters to have agency, too, to be smart, capable, and competent. Her stories are often womanist in tone. Her female characters may violate societal norms, but Peters and her male narrators do not criticize their decisions – and may envy them.

For example, Annet made several decisions (running away with a man and later running to him, despite knowing he was a murderer) and, rather than judging her for her decisions, Peters' narrators eventually sees her as one of the more admirable characters in her book, not only beautiful.

Although written in 1964, Flight of a Witch feels much more contemporary in nature. Her characters are of that time (1950s), but not bounded by it. They are allowed to think and learn. They allow others to do so, too.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book in Ellis Peters's Inspector Felse series. I am so glad I discovered this writer and her series. Every book has been great.

The setting is a village in Shropshire, just on the border of Wales. The time is contemporary for 1964. Annet Beck, an 18 year old beauty, is loved by every lad in the town. She has a troubled relationship with her parents and is wont to disappear. This time she walks up into the bordering hills and does not return for five days. When she reappears she claims to have no memory of what she did.

While she was gone a man was murdered in nearby Birmingham and Annet was seen there. Tom Kenyon, a schoolmaster who boards with the Becks, a high school chap (both of whom are in love with Annet) and Inspector Felse set out to solve the mystery.

I think, more than any other mystery series I read, Ellis Peters delves into the psychological depths of human relationships. She does so with so much perception into her characters that I am quite spellbound as I read.

The Hallowmount, the hill over which Annet disappeared, has a local legend for being inhabited by witches. Is Annet secretly a witch? She certainly is a secretive young woman. With exquisite taste Ellis Peters examines sexuality, femininity, passion and crime. It is an intoxicating mix.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little different from the first two. Very in depth studies of people and their foibles. Good mystery.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once tried to listen to a BBC Radio drama of this book, but they gave far too much airtime to the 18th century woo-woo (which is not even in the book, except a passing mention) and subsequent (nonexistent in the book) "witch trial". The book is much better. There's no actual mention of a "witch" in the text, so I suppose the title was either selected by the publisher (which happens) or refers to the "magic powers" of beauty.

Peters must have had quite a lot of quiet fun naming her secondary characters: for example, "From choir practice, Mr Collins walks (Annet) home" and she works as secretary to the wealthy landowner Mrs Blacklock. Anyone who's ever read Austen or Christie probably caught the references.

There's a very good twist in the end, so even though the book was very slow getting started, I enjoyed it. A little too much thought-transference for the not-quite-hero while he's sitting on the Hallowmount toward the end, but I skimmed that bit. And of course the sweeping up at the end was a tiny bit predictable, but that's what happens when authors decide a mystery must have a dose of Ro-mance to sweeten it. Peters added a bit too much sugar, which is what cost the fifth star.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the Felse book I read previously must be the first in the series chronologically as Dominic Felse was at University in it. Here he is still at school and a more dominant part in the proceedings is played by his police inspector father, who presumably is the Felse referred to in the series, although he did not feature in The Piper on the Mountain.
Peters shows her usual ability to weave plot and characters together, but here there was not for me the overwhelming identity with the characters that she normally produces. Nevertheless an enjoyable read, and again I picked it up late at night, rather than ploughing on with her Shropshire book as being an easier read.

[Amanda Meggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very low score for me to give. I loved all the Cadfael novels by Ellis Peters and this book just didn't cut it. The characters seemed jarring and unrealistic, Annet was too precious to be true and although you wanted to like Tom there was nothing there that was compelling enough to sway you in his interest. The policeman wasn't in the book enough to make it about him, altogether I found that it just wasn't very good, I struggled to bother finishing but was not unhappy with the ending.

[Matthew Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Felse is my second favorite fictional detective (Lord Peter Wimsey first, and the great Sherlock Holmes at third), and this is one of the best in the Felse Family canon.

I just re-read "Flight of a Witch" this week and loved every word. Ellis Peters knew how to spin a tale so that you were carried along through the mystery, experienced each character, amazed by the plot twists, and satisfied by the ending.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am on a binge to reread all the Inspector George Felse books, for probably the third time. This series, which predates Ellis Peters' better-known series about Brother Cadfael, which was made into a series on PBS/BBC, has the same lovely qualities of ever-unfolding characters who seem real and alive, ingenious plots, and a gentle, compassionate yet wry view of human emotions and the craziness of life leavened with a bit of evil and lots of love.

[Sammcnair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually like Ellis Peters, and I liked this one. However, it was not as "mystical" as the blurb implied. That was okay, since mysticism didn't fit, but the blurb wasn't suitable in my opinion. Small town in Scotland, with a teacher besotted by an 18 year old girl, who is recognized at the scene of a brutal murder, and the search for the killer.

[Jolie]

It is very odd to pick up a book and start reading it and think, “this feels familiar and yet not,” only at one point to realize, “yup, read it already.” Oh well. Rereading reinforced my feeling that while this is by the brilliant Ellis Peters, it by no means compares to the Cadfael series. And I won’t read any others. Or reread this one.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was simultaneously encouraged and disheartened when Ellis Peters’ Flight of the Witch opened with Professor Tom Kenyon and his landlord’s daughter, Annet Beck as central characters. While I was concerned about the series becoming formulaic based on the previous two editions and Dominic’s role in them, I was also engaged with the Felse family and wanted to know them more.

While Dominic is rather in the periphery, this is Inspector Felse’s case, and he emerges in this story as a perceptive, hardworking, polite and compassionate man. A student of human nature, Felse brings compassion for human foibles to the job in a way that others, say the imperious Hercule Poirot, always lacked. This makes Felse imminently likeable in a way that makes Detectives with superior intellect who lack compassion look brutal. Peters Inspector George Felse, resembles Christie’s Miss Marple, though their genders differ. And the truth is, I’ve always preferred Miss Marple to Poirot. As you can see, George Felse is moving up in my affections.

As for the crime that casts light and shadow upon these insights, Peters includes here a touch of medieval superstition that harkens back to Brother Cadfeal and The Heaven Tree, combined with coming of age themes that she handles so deftly, growing Mr. Kenyon, Miss Beck as well as young Dominic and his friend Miles. And I have to reference, though I don’t want to give anything away, that Miles mother, Eve, and her interaction with Bunty were marvelous.

Another Bravo! to Miss Peters!
A Morbid Taste for Bones (Brother Cadfael #1), Peters
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Heaven Tree, Edith Pargeter (psst! It's really another name of Ellis Peters), 1960
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There’s More!
A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs (Felse #4), Ellis Peters, 1965
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Rick Kelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this read to be difficult at best. The title would have you believe that this story would involve at least some paranormal activity. Nothing farther from the truth.
It took me some time to get past the first chapters. Ellis Peters typically hooks me early and continues to challenge my imagination as the plot progresses. In this one she did not. For me the descriptions of the town and the land surrounding it are laborious at best. While I struggled to get through the first descriptive chapters I found the plot foundation lacking and the development of that plot slow and plodding at best. Character development was lacking, an anomaly for Ellis Peters. Typically, I can really warm up to the characters in the book and develop either a like or dislike for them, I could not here.
This is the first time I have rated a book this low. I struggled to keep reading until I finished it. Unfortunately, the struggle remained until the last page. While sadly disappointed in this one, I will continue the Felse series. I have found the previous two to be excellent reads and I am looking forward to more..

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a bit of a slow start during the long first chapter. I actually tried it once or twice in the last year or so and never got more than a page or two. This time, I kept going (dodging homework is good for something!) and by the end of chapter 2 found it hard to set aside for very long. It was not action-packed or very suspenseful, but there was the frustration of a nut that would not be cracked, for the reader as much as for the professional and amateur sleuths in the story. The mystery was as much psychological as anything else and was quite good. I was impressed by the growth exhibited by Tom Fenyon in the course of the story and found his character and that of DI Felse rather compelling.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is a Felse investigation, most of the story is told from the point of view of Tom Kenyon, a new young master at the local boys' school. When the eighteen-year-old daughter of the family he boards with disappears for a long weekend, but returns claiming it was only a few hours, Tom is determined to solve the mystery. Among his "suspects" is one of his sixth-formers, but Miles and his friend Dominic Felse are accounted for, on a comping trip. But then, suddenly, the case becomes more serious, and the police take over. But Tom is still convinced that Annet is innocent of any evil-doing — if only he could prove it! Very atmospheric, set in the hills on the Welsh border, the imaginative plot makes this hard to put down. Recommended.

[Rachael Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I was nervous about this one because of the title - but there is no witchcraft present. Only a teenage girl chafing under her parents. When returns from a 5 day disappearance, she claims she doesn't remember anything except being there for a few hours. Tom Kenyon, the local school master, is in love with her and is determined to figure out the truth - but it requires the combined efforts of Tom, George Felse, Dominic Felse and Dom's best friend Miles.
Peters has a powerful writing style which succintly captures personalities and thoughts. She is able to switch point-of-view and speak from an omniscient narrator without feeling awkward or over-bearing. Instead you feel as if you really lived inside the skin of the characters. "

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peters writes with the ability to create pictures one can readily imagine. Her characters are interesting and I appreciate the fact that her young people show maturity. The story presented was intriguing even if the mystery could be solved before the conclusion of the book. Developing the characters of the story was perhaps more of the fascination of the book than the actual mystery. It is helpful to read about England of the 1960's, too, for the portrayal here is not what one would find in a history book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love an old school detective book. This one has a couple narrators which makes it a bit confusing. The mid-20th century style of talking about affection or relationships obliquely takes a bit of getting used to now, but I appreciate the Felse family and the community around them. This one was less about the crime and more about the teenage girl Annette and how all the men around her were super into her which was creepy and I didn’t quite believe anyone was that pretty and self disciplined. But it kept me reading all the way through and I enjoyed that read in one sitting vibe.

[Joie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Two thirds through I thought I'd guessed, then found I'd guessed wrong, I like that. The story does include some ideals that are outdated now, readers should allow that it was written in the 60s when these ways of thinking were the norm. Some of the descriptive passages are almost poetry which I love. The description of a Borders town and village does still ring true today, I'm a few miles away on the other side of that border and that description jumped out at me.

[Gail Richmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

My last book in 2018. Although Ellis Peters is a well-recognized and skilled writer, this mystery didn’t grab me like his other works have. I plan to go back and read the first two in the series. Hopefully, they will have the usual mix of cerebral detective and action that I have so enjoyed before.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. I was wrong when I said I wouldn’t read any more books in this series. At the end of each ebook, there are the fi4s5 couple of chapters of the next book. You have to read them or it looks if you didn’t finish the previous story. So I read the next two. Like binging a series on Netflix. Still 3 stars but interesting enough to keep going.

[Lynne Tull · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a new (to me) series by Ellis Peters. I read all of the Brother Cadfael books. I wasn't aware the Mr. Peters wrote this series, too. The story was draggy at first, but the last half was nerve wracking. Good story. I have ordered four more in the series from my account on Paperback Swap. Recommend.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true mystery with plenty of suspects. Evidence was presented a little at a time, but fairly constantly so there was no lull or time for boredom. The reader is apt to change their mind about who-dun-it more than once. The end sort of trails off leaving me feeling the story wasn't finished. I would have preferred a few loose ends might be tied more securely.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third time pays for all. This novel shows Peters at her best, deeply involved in the characters while not neglecting the mystery. George and Dom do their part, but they are not the focus of the story. An unbalanced triagle (or triangles) guide the story and provide the tension necessary to make this story intriguing and interesting enough to attend to all the way through.