Cool Repentance

Jemima Shore #4

by Antonia Fraser

Christabel Cartwright, a celebrated actress, had left her luxurious country house, its staff of servants, and her husband for a reckless affair. She thought she could come back without penalty. She also thought she could resume her career by starring in two plays. Her director was delighted, as was Megalith Television. But one person in Christabel’s circle was not glad to have her back. What happens next leads the elegant reporter/sleuth Jemima Shore through thickets of human emotions, in the larger-than-life world of the theater, on a trail of murder.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Detective, Fiction, British Literature, Womens

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century Britain (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadecia's Chariot, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and most recently Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. She was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. Antonia Fraser was made DBE in 2011 for her services to literature. Her most recent book is Must You Go?, celebrating her life with Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Carol Storm · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the riveting popular history and biography books written by Lady Antonia Fraser, especially ROYAL CHARLES and THE WEAKER VESSEL. More than that, I love the idea of Lady Antonia Fraser -- a stunningly beautiful English aristocrat who writes mystery novels for fun. But whenever I pick up one of these books I'm just, I don't know, bored to death within about ten pages. I can't help feeling that this sophisticated, educated, unbelievably cultivated and beautiful woman has a very, shall we say, limited knowledge of anything outside her own rather exalted social sphere.

For instance. I didn't read more then ten pages of this mystery before falling into a deep sleep. But I had the impression there was a rock group mixed up in it, a bunch of loutish lads with a song on the charts called "Cool Repentance." Now the phrase "cool repentance" is apparently from some classy 17th century poet. (Lady Antonia knows these things.) But to have a loutish, laddish, English rock group singing a song called "Cool Repentance" is just, I don't know, wrong. Rock and roll is not about repentance, not no way, not no how. Never was, and never will be. It's all about when the blood runs hot, not cold.

As Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones once said, "we don't repent anywhere, man!"

[Katie Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good mystery with lots of potential suspects and a very ironic twist at the finale. This is set around theater people, which seems to be a favorite group for British mystery writers.

[Cassandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, I am too furious at this novel to write a good review. I liked it so much until the reveal, and then I was just terribly disappointed. The problem is, I want these to be Sayers or Cross or even Marsh, someone trying to use the genre to talk about real things, and what they really are is sensation fiction. Oh, how annoying.

Let us just say, that to make one's killer 'mad' in such a way, undercuts anything else the book might be trying to say. I understand the desire to reframe in a way that shocks, but the shock is that there is no rationality, and that nobody cares, the life moves on -- a terribly nihilistic book seen that way, and I do not trust Fraser enough as an author to think that she was trying to do that.

[Freda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good gosh, I never saw that one coming!

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got it right! With murder mysteries I always decide on a person who will be revealed as the killer. It is not unusual for my person to, in fact, become the first victim, eliminating them effectively from the list of potential suspects. But I rarely, just next door to never, choose correctly. Until this one. Of course, that doesn't change my percentages, I'm still next door to never, just adding infinitesimally small increase in distance. The next 100 I read, I'll be wrong, but nothing will ever change that I got this one right. And I'm staging an infinitesimally small celebration!

In fact, with this one, the identity of the killer seemed as close to obvious to me as one could get without the author offering a footnote saying "*this is our killer". The usual murder mystery pattern exists -- the killer is not the one we might think is most likely. In murder mysteries it never is. We have our standard 3 deaths before our investigator, police, private, or hobbyist, realizes who the real culprit is and arrives in the "tick of nime" to unmask the guilty party. Here Fraser departs from the usual. While Jemima realizes who the killer is and rushes to identify that culprit, a fourth murder occurs.

Thanks to Fraser, through Jemima, for providing me a delightful read, a grand mystery, an unexpected (but forewarned) bit of departure from the norm and the delight of having solved early on it myself. You see, I didn't have confirmation of my suspicions until the end and there were times when I was seriously tempted to stray from my early identification. But I stayed true and Fraser remained true to the excitement of discovery!

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe it's forty years since I first read "Cool Repentance" and I'm even more surprised how life has change too. The days of an television investigative journalist been given a prime time spot and getting a large suitable audience are long gone too. No small independent television company like Megalith TV would send their star to make documentary on the Larminster Festival where a stage actress Christabel Herrick was making a comeback in Checkov's "The Seagull". Miss Herrick had caused a scandal by running off with a toyboy/come rock star who later died in a motorcycle accident in the USA. When another actress Philomena Lennox is drowned, while wearing Herrick's bathing cap, it looks like revenge. When it comes to Jemima Shore Investigator she does very little detecting but the story is strong enough to make this book a quite decent thriller.

[Wendy Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sleuth, Jemima Shore, was fabulous as always and the writing was very witty, especially on the subject of the foibles of actors or TV production crews. The murderer was genuinely surprising but I think the solution relied a bit too much on outdated tropes about mental health and schizophrenia for my taste.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had too many extraneous characters and the resolution had me rolling my eyes.

[Jason Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers familiar with Antonia Fraser’s life may derive a degree of frisson on various counts while devouring her fourth book featuring her amateur detective, TV reporter Jemima Shore. The main character in ‘Cool Repentance’ is beautiful blonde Christabel Cartwright, making a comeback after a period of national disgrace following a scandalous affair with a younger David Bowie/Marc Bolan-like rock star while married. (Magnesia Freelove, anyone?) Christabel is an actress tentatively returning to the boards which allows us a possibly firsthand glimpse backstage. How many Pinter rehearsals & aftershow parties did AF attend providing her with material for the chaotic and cynical theatre company surrounding Christabel? The modern theatre complex where the story is mainly set is also surely based on Chichester with its darkened glass, hexagonal buildings and coastal proximity. AF also invents a play about the last days of Marie Antoinette demonstrating her interest in the ill-fated French queen, on whom she later wrote a biography.

While the background of ‘Cool Repentance’ is speculatively delicious, the murder mystery itself is perhaps less well-developed. Jemima herself is more an observer this time than an actual sleuth and does very little deducing. In fact, the mystery unravels itself with very little help or intervention from her. The denouncement is arguably tricksy but cleverly managed and placed throughout the story.

Some other reviewers have been nay-saying about ‘Cool Repentance’, but I enjoyed it and its incidental pleasures. Almost tempted to re-read ‘Must You Go?’ for any clues about the identity of the awful actors and directors populating this book. Who said Vivien Merchant?

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Jemima Shore, TV investigative reporter, is assigned to over a theatre festival in the seaside town of Larminster. But the offstage dramatics are far more compelling. Within the case and crew of the local production of The Seagull, Jemima uncovers a hotbed of artistic ego, Jealousy, and cutthroat ambition. But the real star of the show is the tainted past of actress Christabel Cartwright. Some want Christabel to act her age and halt her not-so-secret love affair. Others just want to leave the past alone.

"But there's always a critic; someone else wants Christabel to take her final bow -- with a highly realistic death scene."
~~back cover

Typical cast of characters for this plot; some highly humorous and some very sterotypical. I thought the ending was a bit too contrived.

[Cws]

M Fra

[Kimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best one so far although in honesty that's not saying much ...