Death in Devon

The County Guides #2

by Ian Sansom

Cream teas! School dinners! Satanic Surfers!

Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of … Death in Devon.

Swanton Morley, the People’s Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley’s daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera.

Morley has been invited to give the Founder’s Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it – murder?

Join Morley, Sefton and Miram on another adventure into the dark heart of 1930s England.

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

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having really enjoyed, “The Norfolk Mystery,” the first in this series of County Guides by Ian Sansom, I was delighted to have the opportunity to review this second outing for the eccentric “People’s Professor,” Swanton Morley, his daughter Miriam and his assistant, Stephen Sefton. Morley has an exhaustive work ethic and is continually writing all kinds of reviews, articles and books – including the series of County Guides which leads to him travelling around the country. Sefton has returned to England after fighting in the Spanish Civil War and has found the position as Morley’s assistant through an advert in The Times.

This book sees them visiting Devon, not only to write a new edition of the County Guides, but for Morley to give the speech at All Souls School, at which his friend is the Headmaster. On arrival, Stephen Sefton is slightly miffed when Miriam’s attention is taken by Alexander, one of the teachers and brother of the Headmaster. Before long, Sefton feels that something is slightly amiss at the school – the local farmer he is boarded with is upset that his animals have gone missing, the science teacher is distinctly odd and, having worked as a school master himself, he can’t help feeling something is slightly wrong. Miriam, of course, imagines that he is jealous and refuses to entertain his suggestions that there is anything to worry about. However, then a pupil at the school is found dead on the beach; seemingly having driven a car off the cliff. Astonishingly, everyone seems to want to cover the death up and carry on with Founder’s Day as normal. However, despite the facade of respectability and stability, Sefton’s fears are realised, as he uncovers what is at the bottom of mysterious events at the school.

Although I loved both this and the previous book, I know that the first novel was either loved or hated by readers. Presumably, if you are thinking of reading this, you warmed already to the characters and the 1930’s setting. Personally, I like the eccentric and ebullient Swanton Morley, his self-assured daughter Miriam and Sefton himself. For me, Sefton is the character who really holds the storyline together – suffering flashbacks from his time in Spain, he drinks too much and is often rebuked by Miriam – but he adds a serious side to Morley’s eccentric and humorous enthusiasms. I really enjoyed this book, even more than the first, and I hope that the series continues as I look forward to reading on.

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm hugely disappointed in this sequel to The Norfolk Mystery. The first was so subtly clever and funny, gently caricaturing the prolific writer, Arthur Mee, and English crime fiction of the 20s and 30s. The sequel tries too hard and over eggs the cake completely. It rambles on aimlessly, particularly in the second half, and the ending is just absurd. This was a great series in the making but the author has lost the plot - literally. Having said that, the passages where Sefton is thinking about when he was fighting in the Spanish Civil War are very well written, poignant, and give depth to Sefton's character. Is this the novel Sansom really wants to write? If so, he should do it. To continue this series is just flogging a dead horse.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

felt this wasn't like rest of series had read

[Kate Vane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read and enjoyed a few Ian Sansom novels. Ring Road succeeded in both gently mocking and celebrating small-town life and had real poignancy. The mobile librarian cosies are light and amusing. So Death in Devon – my home county – should have been ideal for me. But the book is a real disappointment.

The set up is that Sefton, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, is working as secretary and assistant to an eccentric polymath and prolific author named Swanton Morley. Along with Morley’s daughter, Miriam, they set off to Devon to research the latest in Morley’s county guides series, and visit the public school where his friend is headmaster. And just happen upon a crime.

Morley is supposed to be the larger-than-life character who dominates the story but the problem for me is he is intensely irritating. We hear his opinions on everything from Dickens to apple pressing to surfing, sometimes through wearisome dialogue, at other times as Sefton quotes (at length) from Morley’s supposed works. There is endless scene setting with little happening. There is constant cerebral name-dropping of Thirties cultural figures.

I can sort of see that the author is referencing Sayers and her contemporaries – the plot that is marginal to the story, the way that working-class characters are either invisible or shifty, the drone of pseudo-intellectual conversation – but for a parody to work it has to be funny and sharp and this is neither. It’s baggy and boring.

It’s a shame because there is potential here. There are hints at times that Sansom might be trying to take on the Golden Age and show what lay behind it. Sefton recalls the brutality of school bullying and racism – from teachers as well as pupils. He also refers to his traumatic experiences in Spain. He shows sensitivity and insight into Morley (which of course is never reciprocated) and is a sympathetic character.

The book has some interesting themes but they don't feel fully developed. Could do better.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

ARC review for Fourth Estate Books via Netgalley.

CREAM TEAS! SCHOOL DINNERS! SATANIC SURFERS!

Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of … DEATH IN DEVON.

Swanton Morley, the People’s Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley’s daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera.

Morley has been invited to give the Founder’s Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it – murder?

Join Morley, Sefton and Miram on another adventure into the dark heart of 1930s England.

I had already agreed to read and review this book before I had read the first!

Sadly not much better than the first!

Swanton Morley is still not a character that you would like to meet. He is still an irritating egg-head. His daughter Miriam is no better than her father…irritating! And Stephen Sefton only just gets a bit of back bone near the end of the book.

This one does just come in to the mystery category, but only after you have waded through 70% of the book!

If you like the review and would like to see and read more reviews on books the Final Chapter Reading Group and I have read this year. Please visit my blog @ https://finalchapterreadersgroup.word... like and follow.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Professor' Swanton Morley is tackling Devon as his next county guide as he has been asked to give the Founders' Day lecture at All Souls School in Rousden in Devon. He and his assistant, Stephen Sefton and his daughter Miriam set off in the Lagonda to tour Devon but their first stop is the school. Sefton soon realises there is something wrong at the school but can't put his finger on exactly what. When Sefton and Swanton Morley discover the body of a boy at the foot of a cliff mixed up in the wreckage of a car they realise they have stumbled across murder yet again.

What follows is a tense and atmospheric story with Swanton Morley rather less ebullient than in his previous outing. I thought this book was much better written than the first book in the series 'Death in Norfolk', and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Much of it is quite light-hearted but the ending is far from that and it leaves all the people involved reeling from the shock of the events which conclude the novel.

If you like crime novels set in the nineteen thirties, peopled by lovable and eccentric characters which are only just on the safe side of horror story characters then you may enjoy this entertaining series. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.

[4cats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hurrah for The County Guide series featuring The People's Professor Swanton Morley, his aide/biographer and veteran of the Spanish Civil War Stephen Sefton and the seductive but elusive Miriarm Morley, the professor's daughter.

Death in Devon is the second in this hopefully long and entertaining crime series, following on from their guide to Norfolk the trio are now off to the delights of Devon. Morley being Morley has more than just writing a guide to Devon planned, as he is visiting All Souls School in Rousdon to give their Founder's Day speech. However, as soon as our trio arrive they are thrust into the centre of a mystery. A boy from the school dies in mysterious circumstances, but only Sefton seems concerned, Morley who is close friends with the school's headmaster isn't too concerned and Miriam seems to have been swept off her feet the the headmaster's brother.

Well written, entertaining, filled with great characters who have a depth to them especially Sefton and I look forward to meeting the trio in their next outing.

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book from HarperCollins UK, HarperPress/4th Estate/The Friday Project in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading what I expected to be a cosy mystery.

However I was sorely disappointed.

I was 1/3 of the way through the book before we even had a body. And although at first I found the characters amusingly eccentric, their eccentricities soon became wearing and the characters never developed.

The book is packed full of facts (some more interesting than others) and quotes (many in Latin).

I gave up on this book a little over half way through. There was no sign of any development with the body, nor any probability that anything else remotely interesting was going to happen.

Sorry, this one is a non-starter for me.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, however the conclusion/solution is incredibly rushed and not really built up to.

[Szustalke · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an absolute pile of rubbish. I cannot believe I’ve spent several hours of my life reading this but perhaps it’s a lesson. Stephen King said the bad books teach us more about writing than the good ones. Not to mention that this is truly inspiring- if this guy could get several books published with such utter nonsense and create a career out of it, I should absolutely write my own book and get out of the 9 to 5, clearly it’s possible even with no writing skills.

So what’s wrong about this book?
Absolute no plot. This is just chapters of creating an ambience, dilly dallying and no storytelling at all. There is a crime to be solved and no one pays attention to it for another 200 pages. They simply keep on mingling with the higher classes, being petty, being rich and being bored. The ending is utter rubbish. I’ve not been so disappointed with a book for a long long time. I can’t stress how many scenes served no purpose at all apart from perhaps reaching the golden standard of 300 pages. The ending was rushed, suddenly they figured it all out in the span of 15 minutes. There were no cues, no building the mystery. Naaah, we have a dead body at the beginning of the book and unbelievably bad explanation for it 250 pages later.

[Nicholas George · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an unexpected pleasure. The mystery itself is barely mentioned, with the focus primarily on Swanton Morley, an idiosyncratic "people's professor" and long-winded know-it-all who seems to have written a zillion books on practically every subject. His long-suffering aide Sefton somehow puts up with him and his sexy daughter Miriam. It's all very entertaining and quirky. The 1930s timeframe and English locale are additional plusses. This is the second book in the series and I will definitely go back and read the first.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a big fan of the first County Guides novels, set in Norfolk. The characterisation is spot on in my view, and makes for plenty of comic elements to the book. However, I was disappointed with the plot for Death in Devon. Whilst the first book saw Morley and Sefton become amateur detectives (either by chance or design), their involvement in any investigation in this book is minimal. Indeed there is very little enquiry at all into unfortunate events described in the book. Instead, the bulk of the story is about the main purpose of the visit to Devon, the Founders Day speech, and a subsequent outing to the coast with the schoolboys. It's only at the very end, do matters get very quickly tidied up. It almost felt that the crime element of the book had been forgotten about, at the expense of further stretching the Morley character out to new lengths of absurdity (although that is the point of the Swanton Morley at the end of the day). Suddenly the story needed wrapping up, and the final explanation whizzes by. A good, lighthearted read, but a little disappointed at the end. However, I'll still move onto the Westmoreland guide in due course.

[ann miner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always learn a few facts from this series

This is the third book I have read in the "county guides" series written by Ian Sansom. I enjoyed the two other
books in this series and looked forward to reading this one.
Death in Devon fell flat for me. At the beginning chapters a school boy does from driving a car over the cliff, and then not mentioned until the last chapter as a murder. No mystery. The headmaster committs suicide after killing his brother in a rage. This was all observed by characters in the book, so again no mystery. I thought some of the characters lacked depth and caused the story to fall short. The main characters, Mr. Morley and Mr. Sefton, are well defined and contribute the knowledge and wit to keep the story moving. This review would have only been two stars if it wasn't for facts distributed throughout the book. Beginning to end. If you learn anything new while reading a story, then it is a good book. A good book deserves three stars.

[Sue Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The continuation of some of the quirkiest characters I've ever read. This one didn't have the same depth as the first, and I found I wasn't entirely clear as to who the story was focused on as the murder was as incidental as the situation the characters found themselves in. I think it was hard to come up with another murder when the theme seems to be that they are an eccentric crew that are writing a series of books called The Country Guides and there happened to be a murder where they were staying.

Anyways, that was weird.

I did enjoy it regardless and it's fun to have the various weird pictures thrown in it. Would love to know if the pictures came first then the story revolved around them or vice versa. It does bring in some oddness to it all!

I think there's one more to the series, so I'll wrap it up with it and be done with it. We'll see if its any weirder!

[John Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second in the authors County Guide series, set in Devon this time. I have to say that I was slightly disappointed with this book, as I thought that it took too long to get to the scene of the crime. You don't arrive at the crime scene until around page 50, which is roughly 16% of the way through the book. Also I thought that there were too many references to other books by Swanton Morley, the main detective solving the case. I know that the novel is supposed to be set in the 1930's, but overall I just thought it was too slow in getting off the ground.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an unusual mystery. Set in 1930's England, the characters are quirky, and the situations unexpected. The main character (Stephen Sefton) works as an assistant to Swanton Morley, a writer and general man-of-letters. Morley is working on a series of guidebooks to the English counties. When he is invited to speak at a school in Devon, he is anxious to hit the road in his Lagonda. I liked the characters and the author's sense of humor. One interesting point is that the book has illustrations. A very quirky book!

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a bit hard going but worth the effort. It's not a conventional murder but has an enthralling combination of whimsy, comedy, pastiche and genuine suspense in it. The conceit is a loose relationship with the county guides of Arthur Mee and it builds on this quite nicely.

[Gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently I was grievously mistaken in assuming this book would be an exciting if somewhat harmless murder mystery.

There was barely any mystery or suspense and the narrative seemed more concerned with chronicling an incredibly boring sequence of events. The plot seemed really quite underdeveloped and the main ‘action’ was condensed to about 20 pages at the end with very little build up.

There were no likeable characters and everyone seemed to be some kind of flat caricature. The main character/ narrator was especially boring and all of his dialogue was repetitive and substance-less. It would go something like this:

Morley: *is talking about a subject Sefton knows nothing about which wasn’t infrequent as Sefton seemed to know very little about anything at all* ‘Don’t you agree with me about X Sefton?’
Sefton: ‘What?’
Morley: X
Sefton: ‘what’s that?’

He never had anything to say about anything and it became incredibly boring very quickly.

This book may as well have been set anywhere, there was nothing specifically Devon about it. The characters visited one or two places briefly but there was little to ground it in reality especially as the characters are supposed to be creating some kind of county guide book.

The tagline seemed to promise a charming mystery set in the Devon countryside (‘cream teas, school dinners and satanic surfers’), sadly it failed to deliver.

Maybe it was a case of me expecting something different, but this book was sadly not for me.

[Ian Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exaggerated and farcical with the tinge of bleakness and sadness which goes with this series. You can read this as a romp or a superficially put together mystery or, if you want, an observation of brittle pieces of British society changing before the war. You would have to be quite pretentious to do the latter, but there is a melancholic tinge which suggests it is there. The great thing about this series is that it has a bit of everything from satire to slapstick, romance to self-discovery. The trickier thing is that it tries to pack all that into a satirical page-turner.
Expect patronising intellectualism, grandiloquence and feet of clay from highly likeable characters who are either far shallower or far deeper than they believe they are. It is also very funny.
Essentially, I suspect readers will love this series or find it irritating.
This book is one of the better for wider nuances and dodgy undertones. The plot is inevitably unbelievable and irrelevant and comes to a thin but mercifully short conclusion. The process of getting there is well written and (apparently) researched - the brilliance is in the madness presented as sense.

[Ginny Kaczmarek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun update for fans of Agatha Christie and other mysteries set among the upper classes of 1930s British culture. I caught whiffs of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes in the character of Swanton Morley, a wacky genius and amateur detective, but our narrator, Stephen Sefton, is even more intriguing with his PTSD, mysterious past, and struggles to stay sober and employed. There's a nice tension between his bitter skepticism, won by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and the veneer of respectability he's supposed to maintain in the presence of everyone around him--even when he can tell something rotten is going on.

I enjoyed the buildup and suspense throughout the story (though I wondered why the story kept straying from the murder) but the ending felt like it was over with almost before I knew what was happening. The same with Miriam's character: it seemed like there was more going on with her (the surfing scene is hilarious) but in the end she was just a foolish girl who needed to be rescued. I haven't read the other books in the series, so maybe there's more going on, but I felt a little let down. All in all, a pleasant take on classic English mysteries.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first several pages nearly put me off the entire book - talk about run-on sentences! But I persevered, and eventually got used to the wordiness, although it continued and wasn't much less annoying. Since logorrhea is part of the character of Morley, the author of the County Guides, one has to put up with it. The story is narrated by Sefton, a rather annoying wimp who is a sort of secretary-cum-man-of-all-work for Morley, but not very capable. He thinks he is in love with Morley's daughter Miriam, who is another annoying character who loves to cause trouble, but is at least capable of controlling most of her father's mad starts. They all go off to a boys' school in Devon, where Morley is speaking at their Founders' Day celebration. A boy dies, blackmail is discovered, and when the headmaster finds that some of his staff are playing with the occult, he is devastated. I guess the boy's death and the blackmail are what qualified it as a mystery, but the 'sleuthing' was pretty lame, and some things were not finished. It was an interesting read with good characterization, but I feel no desire for anything else in the series.

[Mick Scrimshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in ‘The County Guides’ series and even though I’ve only ever read the first one before, I strangely thought I was revisiting old friends who I had known for much longer that just one book as I joined Swanton Morley and his side kick Stephen Sefton on their second adventure. Like their first outing the whodunit side of the mystery they find themselves in was a little disappointing and was really only in the book to give an excuse to allow Morley, “the People's Professor” to regal the reader with his encyclopaedic knowledge of trivial and yet somehow interesting facts.

Two down and both enjoyed and I’m looking forward to the third, but I’m not entirely sure why as the books really are quite unlike anything else. Quirky has to be the best word I can think of to describe them, but I also found them warm charming and humorous.

[Ben W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short review: This took a while to get into but it was really fun. Morley is a great character, and the contrast between his pomposity and the self-deprecating Sefton as a narrator was enjoyable. Could have done more with the Spanish civil war stuff - but would that have detracted from the whimsy? Could have made more of the actual crime investigation stuff - but maybe that’s the point. Here’s a larger than life eccentric intellectual investigating a crime while also writing three different books or whatever. It was fun, anyway.

[Ingrid Self · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very strange book. The story is told in an old-fashioned way (it is set pre-second WW) and seems to assume that one has read others in the series (I haven't). It's well written, and flows nicely but perhaps if one was more familiar with the author's writings it would be more enjoyable and less frustrating. I'm not sure I understand why there are so many photographs for a work of fiction. Is the whole thing a joke?

[Amberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started and finished date - 13.08.25 to 15.08.25.
My rating - Three Stars.
This book was okay but I found very boring and dull also I think people who like bretonische brandung by Jean Luc Bannalec or the Cornish coast murder by John Bude may like is book. The writing was okay but took some to get used to also the ending of book was okay. The atmosphere was fine but bit bland and the mystery was okay but I found it little bit dull also the picture was a nice touch. I mixed feeling about characters and I would have like them to be flash out bit more

[Suzie Grogan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was immensely silly to the point of unreadability in places and as it didn't really go anywhere or provide any sort of challenge to the reader it really isn't at all like any of the greats the blurb compares it to. By the end it was more like a Famous Five book and I am not sure I would read another one, sadly.

[Robyn McIntyre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

I am character-driven as a reader, and found the main characters unique to a fault and mostly unlikable. If you don't mind dispassionately observing people making idiots of themselves in company of a cast of Characters, a sort of Confederacy of Dunces of an English eccentric variety, you may enjoy this.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over before it had got going, and the quite effective sinister build-up was torn down in rather a hurry. Still, despite being no sort of a whodunnit, it was a gripping whirlwind of a zany mystery, combining end-of-the-pier tackiness with handfuls of antiquarian quasi-erudition, pathos and even moments of tenderness amid the panto. Boarding schools are rum places, indeed.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of pointless scenes, and took for ever to get to point of things. There was much that had me deep signing and rolling my eyes. But then moments they kept me listening and like the main character which is why I kept listening. If it wasn't for him (the person 'writing the story') I would have jumped ship a long time ago.

[K.E. Coles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disappointing after having read & enjoyed Westmorland Alone (The County Guides #3) by the same author. It didn't have quite the same charm for me. However, I am now reading Essex Poison (The County Guides #4) and loving it, so suspect this series may get better & better as it goes along.