The Cavalier Case

Jemima Shore #7

by Antonia Fraser

When "Handsome Dan" Meredith plans to convert his stately Elizabethan mansion into an exclusive country club, his family, including Decimus Meredith--the ghost of the dashing, seventeenth century Cavalier poet, soldier, and viscount--has strong objections. Reprint. PW. NYT. K.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Historical Fiction, Cozy Mystery

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). She has written five highly praised books which focus on women in history, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century Britain (Wolfson Award for History, 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadecia's Chariot, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Franco-British Literary Prize 2001), which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola in 2006 and most recently Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King. She was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. Antonia Fraser was made DBE in 2011 for her services to literature. Her most recent book is Must You Go?, celebrating her life with Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve 2008. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It takes a few chapter to actually get into the story line. The mystery was OK just you average everyday mystery plot line. But I really like the main character Jemima Shore and would probably read another book featuring her.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my second Jemima Shore novel, and to be fair, I should start by saying that I hated (and gave a 1 star review to) the first one. I only read this one because it was part of a library haul that I brought home to see me through the Christmas break, and - I have to read something!

This book is marginally better than the previous one I read (A Splash of Red) if only because it leaves out the victim-blaming and sanctioning/enjoyment of physical & sexual abuse that was so prevalent in the previous title. I've therefore given it two stars, but this will be my last Jemima Shore novel.

None of the characters in this book felt very believable, and the nicknames they were given were beyond irritating. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be referred to continually as 'Handsome Dan' outside of a gossip magazine headline, and hearing everyone calling a teenage girl 'Little Nell' just grated. (I also found the focus on the girl's legs being 'too muscular' for short skirts to be distasteful. For a book first published in 1990, I would have hoped to see less body-shaming of a teenage girl)

Jemima herself is both hypocritical and infuriating. She complains that her current boyfriend has been 'seeing' his wife (to whom he is still married), and at one point refers to his marriage as 'infidelity' (to herself) yet happily jumps into bed with another married man just a few hours later - and then has no qualms of conscience at all about accepting hospitality from her second lover's wife just a short while after. She comes across as someone who believes the whole world is there for her benefit, and that no one else has any rights if they get in the way of what SHE wants. I'm amazed she has any female friends at all, especially ones with partners!

I also found the murderer's motive unbelievable. We're asked to believe that she got away with a successful murder, except for the witness of the butler. And weeks later (after the butler has had multiple opportunities to share what he has seen), the murderer decides that the risk of him telling someone is too great, so he has to die too. Of course, from the novel's point of view, the witness can't be bumped off until he has had the chance to drop a couple of hints about how 'worried' he is - but from the murderer's point of view, it's hard to see why she took so long to get around to finishing him off!

Jemima doesn't actually seem to do any investigating at all - either for her 'job' (the planned TV programme seems to fizzle out, yet Jemima still seems able to hang around Lackland Court indefinitely) or for the actual crime. The final 'reveal' is rushed and patched together. Overall, I had the impression of a book about posh, rich people swanning around in designer clothes at grand tennis clubs and hopping in and out of each other's beds - but with a murder tacked on to give the book a 'plot'. She should either have ditched the murder and written a straightforward Mills & Boon style novel, or just stuck to factual history. This really doesn't work.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading other Jemima Shore books years ago. Either my tastes have changed or this one doesn't come up to standard, as it really was pretty dire. Ridiculous story, unconvincing characters, and even jemima's love life is boring. Several sections of the story just didn't make sense.

Jilly Cooper does these posh girl stories so much better.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jemima Shore story about an aristocratic family with a 17th Century first Viscount who was a poet during the time of Charles I and the Cromwell wars, believed to be a ghost. In modern, 1988, times the 17th Viscount has died, the 18th succeeded and the butler is murdered…. Light, better than the one I read ages ago, but feeling quite dated in 2025. Read on vacation.

[William Dury · Rating 2 out of 5]

Handsome Dan Meredith wants to turn the family estate into a tennis club. I think. Anyway, there’s a ghost wandering around and the soon to be retired butler falls to his death from the upper floors of the house. Case is investigated by television reporter Jemima Shore. We get a very well written look at life among Britain’s upper crust layered within a rarely believable mystery.

[Luanne Castle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few pages in, I realized that I had read this years ago.

[Jean Savage]

Could be read in an hour or so.

[Helen Pomfrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful middle class twaddle!

[Carolyn Cash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down. I was interested in the 17th-Century history angle, with Cavalier poet and soldier Decimus Meredith's story, woven into the mystery behind the untimely deaths.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first Fraser mystery. Couldn't finish ... terrible. She should stick to writing history. So, you ask: why terrible?
1) the lead, Shore, seemed devoid of personality.
2) sentences were all "run-on" ... and although grammatically correct, and
perhaps useful for more serious material, kept putting my mind to wander.
3) uninteresting characters. Not sure why. Perhaps, despite - or because of -
all their banter and chatter, they were caricatures and unreal.

[Bronwyn Mcloughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Almost an idiotic story really. The characters were too ridiculous and the plot quite disjointed and to very little point. I guess it doesn't help that I have not read any of the earlier stories in the series, but the story itself should stand on its own merits. And it doesn't. It feels like a waste of time.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always thought of this series as “relaxation” writing for the author, as opposed to Dame Fraser’s more serious historical works. The books are light, easy to read, even if they do deal with murder. This wasn’t one of my favorites but I still enjoyed it.

[Deena · Rating 2 out of 5]

very enh.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel, and outside of her standard.

[Michele Kallio · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable Jemima Shore caper, full of red-herrings and false turns.

[Kimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better then the last lot from this series but still not amazing, the ending was very disappointing x

[Karla Huebner]

This was the third of the Antonia Fraser mysteries I had on the shelf, and while it held my attention tolerably in rereading, I don't know that I'd say it will become a classic.

[Katie Hilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jemima Shore gets involved in a ghost sighting. It's connected to a painting of a Cavalier poet, whose history also is connected to the case. Entertaining, if a tad confusing.