Golden Rain

Masters and Green #13

by Douglas Clark

Miss Holland, the beautiful headmistress of Bramthorpe College, had everything to live for -- a brilliant career, the love of her staff and students, a wealthy fiance. Why would she swallow poison? Why would she commit suicide?

An academic question? It led Superintendent Masters and Chief Inspector Green behind the ivy-covered walls of the exclusive girls' school...into the stately halls and gardens that sheltered seething rivalries and seeds of death...and someone who decided to teach Miss Holland a lethal lesson -- a lesson she would never forget.

Genres: Mystery, Procedural

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Douglas Malcolm Jackson Clark was a British author.

He was also known by the pseudonyms James Ditton and Peter Hosier.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Miss Holland, the attractive and forceful headmistress of the Bramthorpe College for Girls, is found dead from poisoning, the investigating office assumes it must be suicide or accident. The doors and windows were all locked and there was no signs of anyone else having been around. Of course, Detective Lovegrove also didn't look very hard. Suicide or accident would definitely be a nice and easy verdict and he's all for nice and easy. Except...his boss Chief Superintendent Hildridge and Sir Thomas Kenny both knew Miss Holland rather well. Their girls go to Bramthorpe and Sir Thomas is on the board of directors. And neither one of them believes Miss Holland committed suicide. After the autopsy report shows that she died of Laburnum poisoning (the seeds are sometimes mistaken for dried peas and other foodstuffs), Sir Thomas is even more adamant. Miss Holland was a botanist--other people might mistake Laburnum for something edible, but not a botanist. The men decide to bring in the Yard and Superintendent Masters and his team are sent in.

They have quite a job ahead of them though. Lovegrove is the liaison with the the coroner and he fixed up an immediate inquest before he knew the Yard was coming. And Mr. Gilchrist, the coroner, isn't the type to postpone an inquest without good reason. Unless Masters, Green, and company can produce some good hard facts to throw an accidental death ruling in doubt, they aren't even going to get a chance to investigate the case properly. They get busy immediately and conduct enough interviews to seriously suspect murder--but they're still a bit short on solid facts. Masters manage to pull off a quite tidy little legal maneuver that allows him to convince the coroner to give an open verdict.

Once they start digging, the evidence seems to point towards a girlish school prank gone wrong and the Bramthorpe folks start closing ranks. But Masters suspects that there's more behind a few substituted seasonings than just school girl hi-jinks and he engineers a cozy get-together where all can be revealed.

The thirteenth entry in the Masters and Green series finds the two lead detectives much more at ease with one another. They've gotten used to each other's quirks and, while, they may take a little jab now and then, it's more in fun than with malice aforethought. Each uses his strengths to good advantage to track down evidence and get unsuspecting members of the community to divulge what they know. It was a definite bonus for me that this had an academic connection--given my fondness for academic mysteries. One of my favorites of the series.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.

[Jazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Golden rain refers to the common name for the laburnum tree which has highly poisonous seeds. This puzzle mystery involving the poisoning of a popular headmistress at a girls' school kept me guessing to the end. The solution and explanation were neatly tied up by Superintendent George Masters. Very enjoyable and definitely recommended.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Miss Holland, the beautiful headmistress of Bramthorpe College, had everything to live for -- a brilliant career, the love of her staff and students, a wealthy fiance. Why would she swallow poison? Why would she suddently commit suicide4?

"An academic question? It led Superintendent Masters and Chief Inspector Green behind the ivy-covered walls of the exclusive girls school ... into the stately halls and gardens that sheltered seething rivalries and seeds of death ... and someone who had decided to teach Miss Holland a lethal lesson -- a lesson she would never forget."
~~back cover

Very nicely plotted, great characterization (for the 1980s), just the right length. Very enjoyable read.

[Doug Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Miss Holland, headmistress of Bramthorpe School, dies from ingestion of seeds from laburnum trees (the "golden rain" of the title), George Masters and his team from Scotland Yard are sent to investigate. Miss Holland was knowledgeable about botany, so she was not likely to have ingested the seeds by accident. On the other hand, she had everything to live for and would not have committed suicide. So Masters, DCI Green, and Detective Sergeants Reed and Berger work under the assumption that she was murdered. As usual, it does not take the team long to make progress on the case. Putting all the pieces together correctly, though, is a bit more challenging. A student prank seemed to have been involved, but that was not the whole story.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Mabel Holland respected headmistress of Bramthorpe College for Girls has been discovered dead. The local police declare it an accident or suicide but several members of the Board of Governors are not convinced and call in Scotland Yard.
An entertaining mystery
Originally published in 1980

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat disjointed. Master's oddly diffident, Green nearly civil, the plot rambles, and the end struggles to convince, but a better read than I anticipated.

[John Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleaver and well done

[Barry Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Another difficult case for Detective Superintendent Masters and his team. A school headmistress at an all girls school is found dead. The local police decide it is either suicide or an accident as there is no sign of a break in etc. The local Chief Superintendent is in a quandary as he both likes and respects the school head as his daughter attends the school, his mind is made up for him when one of the school governors requests that Scotland Yard are called in to investigate.

[Cynthia Grove · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid mystery. Plenty of possible suspects easily identified as such quite early on. I counted at least five possibles. Yet the end is satisfying.
The Masters, Green, Berger & Reed team work well together with each offering something to the whole.
More like 3.5 than 3 stars.