An Act of Evil

by Robert Richardson

When a rare, misprinted edition of a sixteenth-century Bible is stolen from Vercaster Cathedral, Augustus Maltravers, a visiting playwright and the irreverent brother-in-law of Canon Cowan, sees the theft as nothing more than an amusing distraction. But the matter turns more serious when his close friend, Diana Porter, is discovered missing from the Dean's garden party. Diana is a talented and beautiful London actress – but also a woman who has recently been involved in controversial publicity. As the police launch a nationwide hunt, her severed hand is found nailed to a front door. The search for Diana escalates into a murder hunt. Consumed with fears for Diana’s safety, Maltravers cannot stop thinking there could be a bizarre connection with the stolen Bible. With his partner, Tess Davy, he starts asking his own questions, but finds no answers. As the festival continues with the staging of ancient Mystery Plays, his anguish mounts until a chance remark leads him to a horrifying explanation for Diana’s disappearance. And Maltravers is about to discover that a single ‘Act of Evil’ can have terrifying consequences. ‘An Act of Evil’ is a brilliantly tense murder mystery that is perfect for fans of PD James and Ruth Rendell. It was previously published as 'The Latimer Mercy'. Praise for Robert Richardson. ''With this, his first novel, Robert Richardson makes a most impressive debut as a writer of the classical English detective story… He knows how to create suspense and an atmosphere of incipient evil; he provides us with a genuine puzzle, his characters are believable people, and the motive of his murderer is psycho-logically credible.” P D James “Skilful rerouting and the taste of real tears” The Sunday Times “Eccentrics, suspects and witty writing abound” The Times “Here is a book to be missed only at your own peril” Armchair Detective “Elegantly written, beautifully characterised, suspenseful and oddly moving” Mystery Reader’s Journal “Grand entertainment, deft handling and suave wit” Publishers Weekly Robert Richardson is a journalist and editor who lives in England.

Genres: Mystery

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 14, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Deanna Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was so so but good overall…

Don’t know what to say to this storyline, but these characters are good though…

Looking forward to read another book series soon…

[Helen Mccabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read an Augustus Maltravers novel and I was rather surprised. Writer Gus is not the kind of detective I have met before, which is a good thing, but I didn't find that he really did much of the sleuthing throughout the book and only gave his personal opinion privately to Tess, took her on his visit to the North of England and kept his intentions from the CID. As Madden had him still in the frame for the murder, would it be likely the police would have allowed him to go off on his own. It was strange and hardly believable too that he developed a friendship and was sought out by the investigating officer who confided in him as if he were another policeman which was the only way that the reader was able to follow what was going on in the investigation. It was only at the end that Augustus took over and unmasked the murderer. There were several grisly parts which left me thinking that the victim was most certainly dead as I could not believe she would be alive after such mutilation. What happened to the missing antique misprinted Bible in the beginning seemed to be the main crime until the victim disappeared. It was only mentioned a few times or even thought about when Councillor Hibbert was visited but I was pleased to note that it reappeared at the end. That was a red herring in my opinion. I think it would have been enough to investigate the crime of stealing it. Augustus explained everything in the final chapters, which wasn't really fair on the policeman. However, I was also surprised to find such a range of vocabulary and prose skills in this book which really made me give it 4*. I enjoyed it for its difference, but I do think it is fair to criticise this book on these few points.

[Mister Pickles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the read, but in the end it just seemed to drag on too long. A good story with a lot of interesting details that in the end didn't matter much. The plot twisted early and we never really got back to the original twist until the end, and it was nothing. A good book to get used to the character and the writing, but not the best of the 2 I have read from this author/series.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but it got a little long

I enjoyed another in this series much more. And I did not guess the murderer but had a hard time remembering who he was.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decently intriguing and a good enough first in the series (my first in the series, not the writer's first) to lead me to the next one. I do think the author was a tad over-reaching in his use of vocabulary, but maybe that is more of a sign that I have been reading simple books lately.