Malice Domestic

Doran Fairweather #1

by Mollie Hardwick

Mending her heart after a bad love affair, Doran Fairweather loves her new life in a tiny Kent county village. Her antiques business is doing well and her low-key romance with the young vicar is quite pleasant. Then a stranger, Mr. Mumbray arrives, bringing with him a malignant presence that causes the villagers to flee, cringe, and sicken. Only Doran and the vicar dare defy the evil they sense invading their lives, but death and destruction are running wild. And neither they--nor the malevolent Mr. Mumbray himself--will be spared....

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cozy

218 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Mollie Greenhalgh Hardwick was an English author who was best known for writing books that accompanied the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs.

As well as writing many Upstairs, Downstairs, Thomas & Sarah and The Duchess of Duke Street novels, she was also the creator of the Doran Fairweather novels and wrote three Juliet Bravo books. Hardwick also wrote many books and plays based around the Sherlock Holmes novels. She married fellow author Michael Hardwick in 1961.

Series:
* Upstairs Downstairs
* The Duchess of Duke Street
* Thomas and Sarah
* Juliet Bravo
* Doran Fairweather

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The characters were interesting enough as to keep me reading this book and rate it as 'okay'. I even enjoyed some of the literary elements. It was choppy, however, and I had to force myself to push ahead and finish it.

[Patricia Orner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good cozy mystery, especially one set in a quaint English village, and when I saw this on the $0.25 rack outside my local bookstore I couldn’t resist.

I should have. Resisted, that is.

Mollie Hardwick was a seasoned writer by the time she wrote Malice Domestic. Individually and in collaboration with her husband Michael, she had written companion novels to some very well known TV shows and movies of the day, including Upstairs Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, and even Sherlock Holmes. So what went wrong?

I haven’t read her other work, and I can’t say I’m inclined to do so. Malice Domestic’s premise was all right, if you like your cozies with a bit of the Exorcist tossed in for good measure. The writing was choppy and jarring, perhaps more suitable for a screenplay than a novel, and the plot was often meandering, often unbelievable, rarely engaging.

Characters? There were plenty of them, all introduced within the first few chapters, which makes them hard to keep track of, and all introductions made with varying levels of info-dump right at the outset, which doesn’t give the reader a chance to get to know them because they’ve already been prejudged and cast in a certain light. None of them were sympathetic and none were more than one dimensional.

One of my biggest irritations with Hardwick’s style is that she inconsistently changes POV without warning, even mid-scene. At a dinner party, we start with the heroine/detective’s perspective, then the author mentions a young estate agent leaning on the piano and we’re suddenly seeing the party through his eyes. Sadly, I believe it was the only way the author conceived of describing her heroine, as the estate agent gives her the once-over and his impression of her physical attributes.

And finally, having reached the last page, I can say with some disappointment that this was not what I would consider a true cozy. The heroine did little detecting and, in the end, she didn’t figure out who the murderer was until she was in a position of peril herself, a position into which she walked blindly and cluelessly. The local policeman, while kindly, offered little towards the solution and the big city cooper who stepped in was almost viciously bent on uncovering all the gossip and scandal without weaving any of the information together.

This book will definitely be heading for the donation bin. Perhaps someone else will enjoy it more than I did.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting mystery, written in 1986 but one could think it was written in the 30’s. A very “literate” outing á la Dorothy Sayers or Sarah Caudwell, if just a teeny bit of a cozy. It took its time getting going and I wasn’t sure it would pass muster, but the last 50-60 pages really came on and sold the whole tale. I never twigged the murderer, either.
Doran Fairweather is happy to moulder away in her old house and make a quiet living in her antiques shop in the village of Abbotsbourne with the able assistance of her partner, the oddball Howell Evans, all while hoping for a deepening of her relationship with the local vicar, Rodney Chelmarsh. Life is good. And then a vacant house in the village is bought and occupied by a certain Mr. Mumbray; things begin to go all askew (and worse) for many in the village. It is as if Evil has taken up residence, and then very bad things begin to happen.
By story’s end, I was well satisfied, and will read more of these.

[Catherine Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the 1988 Corgi paperback edition but Goodreads wouldn't let me add it. I soldiered on to the end, but I really didn't find the main character Doran Fairweather particularly interesting. Although she was supposed to be a caring individual she really didn't seem to exhibit much empathy, nor did any of the other characters for that matter. The actual murder didn't really happen until the book was nearly over.

[Lia Marcoux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding this book was a happy accident! I requested Malice Domestic from the interlibrary loan system, meaning the short story compilation, but got this stand-alone novel which I really liked! Buckets of atmosphere and a victim you rejoice to hear is dead. I'll read more from this author!

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frankly, I don’t know when I finished this book. It’s been a while. In fact, I remember enjoying it, but I can’t remember a thing about it. Sorry about that but at least I finally got something in here.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unorthodox and dreamy antiques dealer and her friend the vicar find unusual undercurrents in their little village of Abbotsborne when the nasty Mr. Mowbray moves in and stirs things up by selling the cricket field. Witchcraft? Madness? Obsession? Hardwick succeeds in a good debut yarn, overall.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

An charming mystery from the days before publishing formula whodunit books was king. Small English village visited by Evil... good stuff!

[The Transmuted Tree]

started Aug 5th, abandoned it the same day. Writing was tedious.

[Kaeeap · Rating 3 out of 5]

kept me guessing until the very end

[Beth Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to listen to. Didn't see the end coming.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Line: "Two more deaths this morning," Rhona said with relish, piling used breakfast pots onto a tray.

Time does indeed heal all wounds. After a disastrous love affair, Doran Fairweather moved to a tiny village in Kent and set up her antiques business in a neighboring town. Now her business is doing well, and her low-key romance with the vicar definitely makes Doran's heart beat faster. However, when the singularly unpleasant Mr. Mumbray moves to town, he has the tendency to make the collective village blood pressure skyrocket. Residents flee in the middle of the night, they sicken, and... they begin to die. Unwilling to stand idly by while her beloved village and her friends are under attack, Doran is determined to find out what exactly is going on.

If you're in the mood for a light, well-written mystery filled with wonderful characters and set in a quintessential English village, Malice Domestic may well be your cup of Earl Grey.

Doran Fairweather is a young woman who cares deeply about her friends and acquaintances. She is incapable of inaction, even when her constant forays into the village to ask questions puts her at the top of the police suspect list. Her romance with the Reverend Rodney Chelmarsh would be sheer poetry if it weren't for Rodney's evil-tempered young daughter. Confined to a wheelchair, Helena has been indulged and spoiled-- much to the dismay of all those around her.

Amongst a stellar cast of characters, Hardwick has inserted a truly evil man, Leonard Mumbray. What Mumbray intentionally does made my blood run cold, but it wasn't his crimes or the identity of the killer that made this book so enjoyable that I'd ordered the second in the series before I'd even reached the halfway mark in Malice Domestic. It was the marvelous cast of characters and their interactions. Hardwick created a village of people about whom I grew to care deeply. These characters are not static. As things happen, they grow and change, and with certain decisions being made about the obnoxious Helena at the end of the book, I'm very interested in seeing what happens in the next book.

If you're in the mood for a bit of antiques, a dash of romance, a soupçon of evil and buckets of character, Mollie Hardwick's Malice Domestic may be your recipe for an enjoyable afternoon of reading.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

PLOT OR PREMISE:
St. Crispin's Village, although not quiet per se, is at least restful. Until Leonard Mumbray retires to the village and tries to exact evil upon its townsfolk, with words here or suggestions there. Extortion, blackmail, threats, sneers...whatever it takes to stir up trouble. And trouble leads to deaths, including suicides and murder.
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WHAT I LIKED:
Miss Doran Fairweather doesn't like it, not one bit. And if Christie had written Ms. Marple at age 26, it might have been Miss Fairweather who resulted. Written in the classic style of life in an English village, there are lots of characters. Besides Mumbray and Fairweather, there is her love -- the local widowed vicar, Rodney Chelmarsh. Only love does not run smooth because Rodney has a handicapped daughter who exaggerates her ailments to monopolize all of Rodney's time and throws fits if he tries to make friends with others.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Well-written, but there are too many little twists and turns that are not needed for the story. As well, the ending is a little anti-climactic in terms of the mystery, although it is slightly made up for with a twist in the love story part. Not enough to save the mediocre ending to the mystery but a nice ending nevertheless.
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BOTTOM-LINE:
Nice ending
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.

[Sandra Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was far from the worst mystery I've read, but nowhere near the best either. A middle-of-the-road story. I say this because for me, the best stories grab my imagination on page one, and then I fly through the pages, unable to get from one page to the next, quickly enough. That was not the case with this tale of vindictiveness, mayhem and murder. The story was not bad, but it took me several chapters before I even began to become involved with the story. They style of writing was not fluid at all, and many times I actually found myself wondering what in the world the author was talking about. Still, once we got into the meat of the tale, I was involved sufficiently that I finished the book, and was pleased by the ending. Enough so that I'm now embarking on a second tale from the same novelist. I must be a glutton for punishment. LOL But since it is another book from a series, I am now more familiar with the main characters. Hopefully that will imply I might become "involved" a bit quicker this time? One can always hope.

[acemace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book along with another mystery at a pretty cool book store ... hole in the wall book store.

It had a slow start, and then it dragged on too long. The pacing wasn't my style. Furthermore, I had no interest in the perfect main heroine Doran. I also did not appreciate the sexual scenes, even though they were more or less 'behind the scenes'; I don't see how it adds anything to the story. How did Doran having a time with that real estate agent bring forth anything productive to the story? Did it change, grow or improve her character? No.
It's more filler that is not needed.

The ending was depressing, as in, you read all that way and that's it. That's it. I knew it was going to be like that within page 150 however. As I said, the pacing in this book isn't for me.

The only thing I liked was mixing black magick in the story, and I wish the author went more into detail. In any case, the author used the black magick as a 'shock' factor rather than an in depth theme. Very unfortunate, but I have little to expect since this it's not a long book and it's a churner book.

[Margaret Pinard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doran is a shortening for Dora Ann, so I believe the author meant it to be pronounced like "Moran."
Anyway.
Entertaining drop into a picturesque English coastal village, where several people's lives will be subjected to Doran's poking and prodding, a la Jessica from Murder, She Wrote. But she's young, and pretty, and still trying to figure shit out. I liked it. :) I figure the lofty literary references between Doran and her love interest make up for the slightly heavy info dump about characters at the beginning. Would definitely read another by this author!

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to read this mystery as Mollie Hardwick wrote 'Upstairs, Downstairs' too. I picked up 4 in this series at a booksale. It was very slow starting for me. Not until the last 1/3 of the book did it pick up. It took that long for the dastardly neighbor to get his comeuppance and the sleuthing start. But the final 1/3 was grand. Never in a million years would I have guessed the culprit! I guess I'll read the other 3 now!

[Miss Lemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little mystery. My favorite location...little quaint town in England. It is modern day (can't have everything, I'm more for 20's 30's) but the characters are believeable and the protaganist well done, not too clever but clever enough. So worth a look.

[Sonic · Rating 1 out of 5]

garbage