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Patrick Grant #2
Silent Witness
The Austrian Alpine ski resort of Greutz is the scene of rivalry between an English party and some new arrivals. The tension mounts with the weather closing in, when blizzards envelope the resort and avalanches threaten. Dr. Patrick Grant's particular powers of logic and reasoning are needed, however, when a member of the party is discovered murdered. Why should a seemingly insignificant individual become a victim?
157 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
203 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Yorke
94 books49 followersMargaret Yorke was an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson (née Larminie).
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
Margaret Yorke was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she later lived in a small village in Buckinghamshire.
During World War II she saw service in the Women’s Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church.
She was widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia.
Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford Don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she wrote some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, ‘authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers’.
She was proud of the fact that many of her novels were essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers, who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, Yorke stated that characters were far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing ‘I don’t manipulate the characters, they manipulate me’.
Critics have noted that she has a ‘marvellous use of language’ and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She was a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.
Margaret Yorke died in 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 29, 2025
This second installment in this series was quite enjoyable. I am a sucker for winter-themed mysteries and though October is earlier than I usually start reading those, I just dove right in. Grant is on an Alpine trip this time and comes to the mystery of a first missing, then murdered member of a group of skiing tourists. A storm arrives that sequesters the group, and the hunt is on to suss out the murderer and their motive before it clears, and they may abscond. There was lots of snow and descriptions of the lodge and village to satisfy me. The mystery itself was well done but is not a "fair-play" type because there is pivotal information that the reader does not have when the resolution is explained. I suspected the culprit only because they were so ignored as a possibility but I didn't have any way to work out the motive for lack of crucial information. Still, it was a fun read.
I will happily read the next in the series. I read this through Kindle Unlimited.
Recommended.
I will happily read the next in the series. I read this through Kindle Unlimited.
Recommended.
September 3, 2019
As I had enjoyed the first in the series so much I moved straight on to this. Sometimes this isnt such a good idea and this was one of those times. Regretably it didnt live up to my expectations.
Instead of the clear setting of the Country House style with the easily identifiable family characters , this one felt muddled. Set in a ski resort around a changeover day, there seemed too many people and I didnt feel that I got to know them well enough to appreciate/speculate about the plot or where the guilt lay.
The writing style was much the same as the first book and the description of the ski village brought back memories of my visit to one such place. As well as the style there were other similarities. In both stories our hero, Dr Patrick Grant, is 'close to' a female who whilst feeling friendly towards him is also annoyed by his investigative methods.
Once again the clues must have been there as I guessed the murderer although for totally the wrong reason.
If this had been the first book that I read I probably wouldnt have continued but as I now consider the score 1-1, I shall let the next one decide if I go on with the series.
Instead of the clear setting of the Country House style with the easily identifiable family characters , this one felt muddled. Set in a ski resort around a changeover day, there seemed too many people and I didnt feel that I got to know them well enough to appreciate/speculate about the plot or where the guilt lay.
The writing style was much the same as the first book and the description of the ski village brought back memories of my visit to one such place. As well as the style there were other similarities. In both stories our hero, Dr Patrick Grant, is 'close to' a female who whilst feeling friendly towards him is also annoyed by his investigative methods.
Once again the clues must have been there as I guessed the murderer although for totally the wrong reason.
If this had been the first book that I read I probably wouldnt have continued but as I now consider the score 1-1, I shall let the next one decide if I go on with the series.
April 22, 2023
The most silent witness of all is a dead one...
Set at an Austrian ski station at Greutz, we have an international mix of characters. A travel group from Britain, a vacationing couple from Holland, and few Germans. The day before a snowstorm and threats of avalanche cuts Greutz off from the outside world, a young newlywed has a dangerous skiing accident when her skis are tampered with. And why doesn't her new husband visit her more often? One of the guests makes a mysterious visit to local chalet. Fiona, the operator of the hotel discotheque, flirts outrageously with everything in pants but then gets drunk and drapes herself over the quietest, most unlikely guest. Freddie Derrington and Barbara Whittaker claim never to have met, but seem all-too studious in the avoidance of each other. Liz Morris senses tension in the air, but puts it down to the enforced inactivity once the skiing slopes are shut down.
Then Bernard Walker goes missing. At first, no one notices. Walker was such a nondescript man. Didn't really join in with the others in most activities and liked to ski alone after the skiing classes had finished. But after he hadn't been seen at meals and then it was discovered that his bed hadn't been slept in, the travel guide got worried. Liz Morris's fried Patrick Grant, Oxford don and sometimes amateur sleuth, had just arrived with the last group of tourists before the snow storm. He's staying with his friend Professor Klocker. Liz tells him about the missing man and Patrick is sure that something nasty has happened to Bernard. When Bernard's body is found in the stream under the bridge connecting the ski lodge with the village, it looks like an unfortunate accident--at least the burgomeister would like to think so. But Patrick wonders what the fussy little man was doing out in the snow without his galoshes. And why he has a suspicious lump behind his ear. Did Bernard witness something that someone wanted to keep quiet? Was someone jealous of the attention Fiona gave him that night at discotheque? Patrick won't be satisfied until he figures it out
Yorke sets the scene for a nice little closed circle mystery--snowbound ski lodge and tense atmosphere. Lots of red herrings to investigate and wade through before finding the answer. And I love me a mystery with an academic connection--and we have both an Oxford don and a professor in the cast of characters. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of clues to the murderer and the motive. I actually guessed who the killer was even though I can't point to any good reasons for my guess based on the text. When I found out the motive, the plot fell kind of flat.
A very middle-of-the road mystery. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all one could want either. Nice setting and set up, but could have used a better follow through.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Set at an Austrian ski station at Greutz, we have an international mix of characters. A travel group from Britain, a vacationing couple from Holland, and few Germans. The day before a snowstorm and threats of avalanche cuts Greutz off from the outside world, a young newlywed has a dangerous skiing accident when her skis are tampered with. And why doesn't her new husband visit her more often? One of the guests makes a mysterious visit to local chalet. Fiona, the operator of the hotel discotheque, flirts outrageously with everything in pants but then gets drunk and drapes herself over the quietest, most unlikely guest. Freddie Derrington and Barbara Whittaker claim never to have met, but seem all-too studious in the avoidance of each other. Liz Morris senses tension in the air, but puts it down to the enforced inactivity once the skiing slopes are shut down.
Then Bernard Walker goes missing. At first, no one notices. Walker was such a nondescript man. Didn't really join in with the others in most activities and liked to ski alone after the skiing classes had finished. But after he hadn't been seen at meals and then it was discovered that his bed hadn't been slept in, the travel guide got worried. Liz Morris's fried Patrick Grant, Oxford don and sometimes amateur sleuth, had just arrived with the last group of tourists before the snow storm. He's staying with his friend Professor Klocker. Liz tells him about the missing man and Patrick is sure that something nasty has happened to Bernard. When Bernard's body is found in the stream under the bridge connecting the ski lodge with the village, it looks like an unfortunate accident--at least the burgomeister would like to think so. But Patrick wonders what the fussy little man was doing out in the snow without his galoshes. And why he has a suspicious lump behind his ear. Did Bernard witness something that someone wanted to keep quiet? Was someone jealous of the attention Fiona gave him that night at discotheque? Patrick won't be satisfied until he figures it out
Yorke sets the scene for a nice little closed circle mystery--snowbound ski lodge and tense atmosphere. Lots of red herrings to investigate and wade through before finding the answer. And I love me a mystery with an academic connection--and we have both an Oxford don and a professor in the cast of characters. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of clues to the murderer and the motive. I actually guessed who the killer was even though I can't point to any good reasons for my guess based on the text. When I found out the motive, the plot fell kind of flat.
A very middle-of-the road mystery. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all one could want either. Nice setting and set up, but could have used a better follow through.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
July 31, 2014
"A dead body, frozen stiff and propped in a chairlift descends to the tiny ski station of Greutz in the Austrian Alps ...
"A young bride is almost killed in a skiing accident after her skis are tampered with.
"Fiona, the glamorous operator of the village discotheque, is obviously badly frigthtened and fails to show up for work one evening ...
"Then, when Greutz is cut off from the outside world by bad weather and the threat ofr avalanche, the holiday atmosphere evaporates completely; and Dr. Patrick GTrant, on a mid-term vacation from his Oxford college, finds himself emgroiled in his most dangerous and mysterious case."
~~back cover
I've read the other three Patrick Grant mysteries, and quite liked them. This one seemed disjointed to me, and I had a hard time trying to sort the plot out. The book was more than halfway through before the murder happened, and all the characterization seemed turgid. The plot was definitely a product of its time -- published in the 197os, but seemingly took place either in the 1960s or late 1950s, although disco came in in the early '70s.
I'm not a skier so the setting didn't grab me, the plot had to be waded through and the characters seemed flat. I guess I'm not recommending this book ...
"A young bride is almost killed in a skiing accident after her skis are tampered with.
"Fiona, the glamorous operator of the village discotheque, is obviously badly frigthtened and fails to show up for work one evening ...
"Then, when Greutz is cut off from the outside world by bad weather and the threat ofr avalanche, the holiday atmosphere evaporates completely; and Dr. Patrick GTrant, on a mid-term vacation from his Oxford college, finds himself emgroiled in his most dangerous and mysterious case."
~~back cover
I've read the other three Patrick Grant mysteries, and quite liked them. This one seemed disjointed to me, and I had a hard time trying to sort the plot out. The book was more than halfway through before the murder happened, and all the characterization seemed turgid. The plot was definitely a product of its time -- published in the 197os, but seemingly took place either in the 1960s or late 1950s, although disco came in in the early '70s.
I'm not a skier so the setting didn't grab me, the plot had to be waded through and the characters seemed flat. I guess I'm not recommending this book ...
October 15, 2020
Bad weather trapped a group of British tourists on a package holiday in a ski resort. It wasn’t surprising that tempers started to fray and holiday dalliances to form. What was surprising was the dead body...
This book captures a group of 1970s British middle-class holidaymakers only too well. I don’t know who come across worse - the married couples who are all, in their different ways, fed up with their marriages, or the singletons, split into predatory females and males desperate to avoid becoming prey. One of them, divorcée Liz, happens to be an old flame of Yorke’s amateur sleuth Patrick Grant, coincidentally also in the ski resort, and so he becomes embroiled in investigating when one of the party ends up dead.
The most chilling part of this book is the description of how easy it is for a member of a tour group to go missing without anyone realising. You’ll be put off ever using the ‘looking as though you’re going somewhere purposefully to avoid being accosted’ walk ever again. The ski holiday setting provides admirable fodder for murder suspects in a group of people who are all strangers - or are they? - and whose motives for murder could go back decades or be found in the incidents of the holiday itself.
Although this is the second of a series, you don’t need to have read the first. I’m not so enamoured of Patrick Grant as Yorke is - she constantly has Liz comment on how perspicacious he is and wish he would be a bit more serious about relationships, rather like Harriet Vane with a bit less self-respect. He does do one very good bit of detecting, and the circumstances make his amateur investigations entirely appropriate and not over the top. Any academic reading this book will be green with envy at the picture it presents of a don’s life in the days before the REF.
There are some excellent red herrings but the solution, while ingenious, is not one of my favourite tropes. I’d read more of this series but wouldn’t go out of my way to hunt it down.
This book captures a group of 1970s British middle-class holidaymakers only too well. I don’t know who come across worse - the married couples who are all, in their different ways, fed up with their marriages, or the singletons, split into predatory females and males desperate to avoid becoming prey. One of them, divorcée Liz, happens to be an old flame of Yorke’s amateur sleuth Patrick Grant, coincidentally also in the ski resort, and so he becomes embroiled in investigating when one of the party ends up dead.
The most chilling part of this book is the description of how easy it is for a member of a tour group to go missing without anyone realising. You’ll be put off ever using the ‘looking as though you’re going somewhere purposefully to avoid being accosted’ walk ever again. The ski holiday setting provides admirable fodder for murder suspects in a group of people who are all strangers - or are they? - and whose motives for murder could go back decades or be found in the incidents of the holiday itself.
Although this is the second of a series, you don’t need to have read the first. I’m not so enamoured of Patrick Grant as Yorke is - she constantly has Liz comment on how perspicacious he is and wish he would be a bit more serious about relationships, rather like Harriet Vane with a bit less self-respect. He does do one very good bit of detecting, and the circumstances make his amateur investigations entirely appropriate and not over the top. Any academic reading this book will be green with envy at the picture it presents of a don’s life in the days before the REF.
There are some excellent red herrings but the solution, while ingenious, is not one of my favourite tropes. I’d read more of this series but wouldn’t go out of my way to hunt it down.
June 8, 2025
She's a good writer, and the books feel more like regular novels with a mystery component than a "mystery" per se (somewhat like what Kate Atkinson does, although, to quote a Bond film, nobody does it better (than Kate Atkinson)).
I wouldn't have minded a bit less skiing (or quite a bit less skiing) or skiing-adjacent stuff. I felt if I didn't pay attention to all the many, many details of this skiing resort I would miss essential clues. Having finished, I realise I could have skimmed a bit and all would have been fine.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
I wouldn't have minded a bit less skiing (or quite a bit less skiing) or skiing-adjacent stuff. I felt if I didn't pay attention to all the many, many details of this skiing resort I would miss essential clues. Having finished, I realise I could have skimmed a bit and all would have been fine.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
July 7, 2025
Como fã de policiais, não resisto a um mistério para me fazer companhia durante as férias E foi exatamente isso que encontrei neste livro, mas com um ingrediente agridoce: leveza. Não encontrei um enredo arrebatador, daqueles que nos pára o coração e nos deixa à beira de um precipício até que chegue a resposta à derradeira pergunta: "quem matou?". Senti que a descrição inicial das personagens e do ambiente, embora importante, foi demasiado longa para um livro tão pequeno e que não houve espaço para questionar os vários caminhos à resolução do mistério. A história podia ter sido mais aprofundada, menos leve, caso houvesse mais espaço para isso. Apesar de tudo, foi uma leitura bastante agradável, um livro tão leve que acabei em cinco dias.
October 16, 2025
A lot to wade thru here. A lot of characters, a lot of storylines, a convoluted plot, a lot of repeated descriptions of skiing and themes that people now may not understand.
It didn't help that nothing really happened for the first half of the book except for character development and scene setting. The final explanation may have made more sense in the early 1970s.
I was left wondering how this book was an award winner as the cover exclaims....
It didn't help that nothing really happened for the first half of the book except for character development and scene setting. The final explanation may have made more sense in the early 1970s.
I was left wondering how this book was an award winner as the cover exclaims....
October 27, 2025
Well, I came right to this book number two in the series about Patrick Grant as I really enjoyed the first in the same: Dead in the Morning. I didn't find this book quite as charming but I still enjoyed it and will continue to read about Patrick Grant.
(Please forgive my poor English, my excuse is I’m Swedish).
(Please forgive my poor English, my excuse is I’m Swedish).
October 10, 2025
"...said Patrick feelingly." seriously? How did this author earn so many accolades? Her characters are not well developed and the dialogue is often unbelievable. The only thing I can appreciate is the imagery and description of the landscape. She obviously has a mastery of the language. But in my opinion, she just is not a very good murder mystery story teller...
November 26, 2025
slow moving
Too slow a start, goes on and on with little action then meanders on, before finale, I kept getting bored and skipping bits to get to the
Finale. I won’t buy another by the author after two with the slow pages and pages of no real action, a lot of description but too long and drawn out, — too much bordom. Yawn!
Too slow a start, goes on and on with little action then meanders on, before finale, I kept getting bored and skipping bits to get to the
Finale. I won’t buy another by the author after two with the slow pages and pages of no real action, a lot of description but too long and drawn out, — too much bordom. Yawn!
January 15, 2022
An enjoyable murder mystery from Margaret Yorke. Patrick Grant is a likeable character and never veers off course with his detection. Yorke brings the Austrian Alps of the 1970s to life with the murder merely a minor distraction until Dr Grant turns his suspicions into an investigation. Good stuff.
October 30, 2025
A large cast of mostly indistinguishable characters with an unduly complicated plot. Even when the murderer was revealed the story made little sense. Or maybe by that point I’d lost any interest. Too bad as the earlier title in this series was rather good.
November 15, 2025
Really well written. Loved seeing more of Patrick again although he’s a bit patronising particularly to women. This one loses a star as I don’t feel like the information was available to the reader to solve the mystery so it was a bit of a sudden and anti-climactic ending.
May 16, 2018
It was ok, I guessed who done it, but I can't say I figured out the mystery as I didn't guess "why." I pretty typical old-fashioned British mystery written by a female author.
October 22, 2025
Very good.
December 14, 2025
Too much snow and skiing. A LONG time before a corpse turns up, then a race to the denouement. I love MY but this is not a favorite. Pretty dated as well.
July 10, 2025
Ski resort ads never show a stiff in the lift. Wonder why?
Margaret Yorke's choice of Oxford professor Patrick Grant as her amateur detective was a stroke of genius. Young, but with a professional background that gains people's trust. Attractive, but single. A wide range of friends and acquaintances from his years at Oxford. Nice long vacations for personal or professional travel. And he's always falling into some mystery.
Now he's in a small Austrian village that caters to those who have no more sense then to strap boards to their feet and throw themselves down mountainsides. It's a popular sport for English aristocrats, so the middle class follows suit. Sensible working class folks head to Spain, beer, and sunburns.
Vacations offer unlimited possibilities for intrigue, passion, and complications. Singles of both sexes on the prowl, looking for hook-ups or more. Happily married couples enjoying time away from responsibilities. Others looking for some action off the slopes as well as on.
Not everyone skis. Some take walks or play bridge. All are supposedly strangers, but sometimes a casual remark reveals previous meetings. All seem like average people with unremarkable lives, but are they who they pretend to be?
A heavy snowfall cuts off the village and nerves fray. Everyone has secrets. Does someone trapped in Greutz have a secret they can't afford to become known? When a man dies, Dr Grant suspects the man of blackmail. If so, he picked the wrong victim.
We meet Liz Morris, who got tired of waiting for Grant to propose and married someone else. Now Liz is divorced, as was Margaret Yorke. Liz says married women look down on divorced ones, an attitude Yorke may encountered. Liz is curious about her friends' marriages because, "Having failed in her own marriage, she was morbidly fascinated by the management of other people's....." Is Liz Morris an autobiographical character? Did Yorke have a "Patrick Grant" in her own life?
I enjoyed this book and its background of the beautiful, dangerous Alps. The post-WWII era differed on opposite sides of the Atlantic. By the 1970's, WWII was ancient history for Americans. In Europe, the war was still fresh, with memories of lost loved ones or childhoods in occupied countries.
Now Germany is peaceful and the new enemy is the Soviet Union, but have things really changed? Is a Cold War any less dangerous than a hot one? In the cold snows of an Alpine ski resort, Patrick Grant discovers that old wounds and old passions can be powerful forces.
Margaret Yorke's choice of Oxford professor Patrick Grant as her amateur detective was a stroke of genius. Young, but with a professional background that gains people's trust. Attractive, but single. A wide range of friends and acquaintances from his years at Oxford. Nice long vacations for personal or professional travel. And he's always falling into some mystery.
Now he's in a small Austrian village that caters to those who have no more sense then to strap boards to their feet and throw themselves down mountainsides. It's a popular sport for English aristocrats, so the middle class follows suit. Sensible working class folks head to Spain, beer, and sunburns.
Vacations offer unlimited possibilities for intrigue, passion, and complications. Singles of both sexes on the prowl, looking for hook-ups or more. Happily married couples enjoying time away from responsibilities. Others looking for some action off the slopes as well as on.
Not everyone skis. Some take walks or play bridge. All are supposedly strangers, but sometimes a casual remark reveals previous meetings. All seem like average people with unremarkable lives, but are they who they pretend to be?
A heavy snowfall cuts off the village and nerves fray. Everyone has secrets. Does someone trapped in Greutz have a secret they can't afford to become known? When a man dies, Dr Grant suspects the man of blackmail. If so, he picked the wrong victim.
We meet Liz Morris, who got tired of waiting for Grant to propose and married someone else. Now Liz is divorced, as was Margaret Yorke. Liz says married women look down on divorced ones, an attitude Yorke may encountered. Liz is curious about her friends' marriages because, "Having failed in her own marriage, she was morbidly fascinated by the management of other people's....." Is Liz Morris an autobiographical character? Did Yorke have a "Patrick Grant" in her own life?
I enjoyed this book and its background of the beautiful, dangerous Alps. The post-WWII era differed on opposite sides of the Atlantic. By the 1970's, WWII was ancient history for Americans. In Europe, the war was still fresh, with memories of lost loved ones or childhoods in occupied countries.
Now Germany is peaceful and the new enemy is the Soviet Union, but have things really changed? Is a Cold War any less dangerous than a hot one? In the cold snows of an Alpine ski resort, Patrick Grant discovers that old wounds and old passions can be powerful forces.
December 29, 2014
Silent Witness / Margaret Yorke.
Read: December 2014
This book so reminded me of the worst book I've ever read (couldn't finish “Resurrection” by Wolf Haas): set in the ski slopes of Europe, not a long book, halfway through before you got to the story.
Unlike Haas, however, the grammar was spot on, dated, in fact, as was the language (book copyright 1972 but the author born 1924). However the action wasn't dated in that holiday makers were jumping in and out of each other's beds (or hoping to) and there was the question about whether one or two bachelors (yes, a dated term) were queer.
Also unlike “Resurrection”, the first half was not repetitive but it did go on and on, describing the characters and their inconsequential actions endlessly to not great advancement of the plot, when it finally came.
This was nothing more than an extremely over-long short story (not even a novella!)
I wouldn't choose to read Margaret Yorke again if I had to buy the book or even borrow it from the library, but might do so (if I get desperate) as I have a couple more of my mother's now residing, like Silent Witness, on my bookshelves at home.
Read: December 2014
This book so reminded me of the worst book I've ever read (couldn't finish “Resurrection” by Wolf Haas): set in the ski slopes of Europe, not a long book, halfway through before you got to the story.
Unlike Haas, however, the grammar was spot on, dated, in fact, as was the language (book copyright 1972 but the author born 1924). However the action wasn't dated in that holiday makers were jumping in and out of each other's beds (or hoping to) and there was the question about whether one or two bachelors (yes, a dated term) were queer.
Also unlike “Resurrection”, the first half was not repetitive but it did go on and on, describing the characters and their inconsequential actions endlessly to not great advancement of the plot, when it finally came.
This was nothing more than an extremely over-long short story (not even a novella!)
I wouldn't choose to read Margaret Yorke again if I had to buy the book or even borrow it from the library, but might do so (if I get desperate) as I have a couple more of my mother's now residing, like Silent Witness, on my bookshelves at home.
December 23, 2012
Margaret Yorke recently passed away. She was a prolific author who began writing in the late 1950's. I had read some of her work several years ago but now am rereading the Dr. Patrick Grant series when I found it in the very nice House of Stratus edition. Grant, a don at Oxford with a degree in English lit get caught up the the solving of murders.
This particular story is a good winter read because it takes place in a skiing village where all the characters are snowbound due to a several day blizzard. In this neck of the woods snow is taken for granted and life goes on as usual. The main cast of characters are part of a tour group staying in a small hotel and the mystery moves along a bit slowly as if the reader had to struggles through banks of snow. I felt like I was there. There is a good plot and an interesting resolution. Happily I have the next in the series GRAVE MATTERS on hand.
This particular story is a good winter read because it takes place in a skiing village where all the characters are snowbound due to a several day blizzard. In this neck of the woods snow is taken for granted and life goes on as usual. The main cast of characters are part of a tour group staying in a small hotel and the mystery moves along a bit slowly as if the reader had to struggles through banks of snow. I felt like I was there. There is a good plot and an interesting resolution. Happily I have the next in the series GRAVE MATTERS on hand.
March 6, 2014
#2. Silent Witness [1972], 5 hours 37 mins, read by Christopher Kay
blurb The atmosphere among the guests in the Austrian hotel is amicable until a group of holiday-makers bring rivalries and distrust. The tension mounts when the weather worsens and the town is cut off from the outside world. Relationships are strained by the boredom of inactivity as the blizzards curtail skiing. One of the party disappears and is later found murdered. Dr Patrick Grant investigates.
3* - Dead In The Morning
CR - Silent Witness
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