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St. Just Mystery #3
Death at the Alma Mater
BOOK 3 IN THE AGATHA AWARD-WINNING SERIES
St. Michaels College is prestigious, stately—and in frightful disrepair. To replenish the school's dwindling coffers, the College Master plans a fundraising weekend for wealthy alums. But all goes awry when the wealthy and gorgeous Lexy Durant is found viciously strangled to death.
Drama queen Lexy inspired jealousy, envy, and spite in everyone. As Chief Inspector St. Just weighs clashing egos and likely suspects—Lexy's debt-ridden Latino lover, her ex-husband who jilted her, a hot-tempered Texan once rejected by the victim—he discovers unsavory secrets . . . and a shocking twist.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 8, 2010
27 people are currently reading
524 people want to read
About the author
G.M. Malliet
48 books693 followersG.M. Malliet is the author of three mystery series; a dozen or more short stories published in The Strand, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine; and WEYCOMBE, a standalone suspense novel.
Her Agatha Award-winning Death of a Cozy Writer (2008), the first installment of the DCI St. Just mysteries, was named one of the ten best novels of the year by Kirkus Reviews. Subsequent Max Tudor novels were Agatha finalists.
Her Agatha Award-winning Death of a Cozy Writer (2008), the first installment of the DCI St. Just mysteries, was named one of the ten best novels of the year by Kirkus Reviews. Subsequent Max Tudor novels were Agatha finalists.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
August 2, 2013
Just as Death of a Cozy Writer sent up the venerable British house mystery, G.M. Malliet crafts her latest Detective Inspector St. Just mystery, Death at the Alma Mater as a send-up of Gaudy Night. However, Malliet proves more M.C. Beaton (in one of her lesser Hamish Macbeth novels) than Dorothy L. Sayers.
Most of Malliet's characters -- a notable exception being Portia De'Ath, and even she has a rather twee name -- come across as stock or over the top: the self-less police inspector, his loyal if dim-witted sergeant, the horsey county woman, the posh peer, the gauche Texan; the formidable, tweedy female academic; the bubble-headed TV news presenter, the obnoxious New Yorker, the naïve clergyman -- well, you get the idea. Another drawback is Malliet's tendency to sloppily slip into cliché. For example, when describing a long-suffering scholarship student, Saffron, Malliet writes, "Like her robe, the duvet was threadbare, but it was spotless." After all, aren't all the lower classes plucky and hard-working albeit in rags? Threadbare? Really? Maybe in the age of Charles Dickens and rag-and-bone shops. In the age of Gillian Flynn and H&M, not so much.
Death at the Alma Mater has a clever ending -- all of Malliet's mysteries do -- but this time it's not enough to make up for the trite writing. The novel's suitable for when readers need a mindless mystery and they haven't any Ann Granger, Diane Mott Davidson or something else better at hand.
Most of Malliet's characters -- a notable exception being Portia De'Ath, and even she has a rather twee name -- come across as stock or over the top: the self-less police inspector, his loyal if dim-witted sergeant, the horsey county woman, the posh peer, the gauche Texan; the formidable, tweedy female academic; the bubble-headed TV news presenter, the obnoxious New Yorker, the naïve clergyman -- well, you get the idea. Another drawback is Malliet's tendency to sloppily slip into cliché. For example, when describing a long-suffering scholarship student, Saffron, Malliet writes, "Like her robe, the duvet was threadbare, but it was spotless." After all, aren't all the lower classes plucky and hard-working albeit in rags? Threadbare? Really? Maybe in the age of Charles Dickens and rag-and-bone shops. In the age of Gillian Flynn and H&M, not so much.
Death at the Alma Mater has a clever ending -- all of Malliet's mysteries do -- but this time it's not enough to make up for the trite writing. The novel's suitable for when readers need a mindless mystery and they haven't any Ann Granger, Diane Mott Davidson or something else better at hand.
July 26, 2011
Another funny mystery, though not nearly as good as the previous two. This time the murder takes place at the fictional St. Michael’s College, Cambridge, where the cash-strapped college is hosting a special weekend for rich alumni. Unfortunately, this time the author often goes for easy jokes, the solution is improbable, and — worst of all — there’s an appallingly written American character who occasionally throws cowboy expressions from TV Westerns into snarky, complexly British-sounding sentences. It's as though the author couldn't make the effort to change her voice but every now and then remembered to sound "Texan," which is weird because she's smart and has lived in both England and the US, so why the gross unevenness? I was also a bit irritated because I kept referring to the map of the college at the front of the book to keep track of who was where, and it didn’t matter, so I felt taken in. Or maybe it did matter but I couldn’t figure out how. Not bad, but not great. Certainly not disappointing enough to give up on this series.
January 27, 2019
I enjoyed much of the mystery set in St. Mike's College at Cambridge, but eventually found the resolution to be just a tad too farfetched, albeit very clever (especially seeing as these were supposed to be all extremely intelligent people).
I am really looking forward to seeing how Arthur St. Just and Portia De'Ath's relationship progresses. It would be wonderful to have additional info on their backgrounds and to have more of their personal lives and personalities revealed in each new book.
I am really looking forward to seeing how Arthur St. Just and Portia De'Ath's relationship progresses. It would be wonderful to have additional info on their backgrounds and to have more of their personal lives and personalities revealed in each new book.
September 3, 2022
Liked this one better than Death & the Lit Chick. Back on track for G. M. Malliet.
June 4, 2019
To begin with, I read a lot of mysteries. I try not to waste time on those I believe to be poorly written, and Malliet has always come through in the past with fun, lightweight stories. Not so with this particular selection.
For starters, the internal dialogues of Portia (“how thrillingly macho”) and St Just (“One felt that one had to earn the privilege of seeing that smile”) are just cliched eye-rolls. I want mystery not banal romance. If I read one more platitude about what a chivalrous gentleman St Just is, or how Portia is “held in the highest regard” by everyone, I thought I was going to lose my lunch (how’s that for an easy cliche?) or at the very least toss this one on the DNF pile.
P and SJ like each other; we get it already - let’s move on to the supposed plot. But at the halfway point, the quality of the writing just continued to plummet. Too many words wasted with the two protagonists mooning over each other in case the reader hadn’t yet got the message.
And of course the Americans came across as uncouth, clueless, bobble-heads.
The solution to the mystery was implausible in the extreme. In all honesty, I can’t believe how much I didn’t like this book. Everything was so stereotyped - really a disappointment. I kept hoping it would get better, but by the end I just read as fast as I could to get it overwith.
Malliet’s Max Tudor series is a much better series than this St Just claptrap. I would not waste time on another, but thankfully she seems to have abandoned this series.
For starters, the internal dialogues of Portia (“how thrillingly macho”) and St Just (“One felt that one had to earn the privilege of seeing that smile”) are just cliched eye-rolls. I want mystery not banal romance. If I read one more platitude about what a chivalrous gentleman St Just is, or how Portia is “held in the highest regard” by everyone, I thought I was going to lose my lunch (how’s that for an easy cliche?) or at the very least toss this one on the DNF pile.
P and SJ like each other; we get it already - let’s move on to the supposed plot. But at the halfway point, the quality of the writing just continued to plummet. Too many words wasted with the two protagonists mooning over each other in case the reader hadn’t yet got the message.
And of course the Americans came across as uncouth, clueless, bobble-heads.
The solution to the mystery was implausible in the extreme. In all honesty, I can’t believe how much I didn’t like this book. Everything was so stereotyped - really a disappointment. I kept hoping it would get better, but by the end I just read as fast as I could to get it overwith.
Malliet’s Max Tudor series is a much better series than this St Just claptrap. I would not waste time on another, but thankfully she seems to have abandoned this series.
April 3, 2022
Aside from giving a few insights into St. Just, and his relationship with Portia, this one didn't send me.
I found none of the characters likeable. The past relationships seemed silly enough to make the present ones even sillier. I didn't figure out who did it, but I honestly didn't care that Lexy died or who killed her. Finding out who and how was just weird, and well, yeah, didn't much care for this one.
I found none of the characters likeable. The past relationships seemed silly enough to make the present ones even sillier. I didn't figure out who did it, but I honestly didn't care that Lexy died or who killed her. Finding out who and how was just weird, and well, yeah, didn't much care for this one.
April 10, 2020
Brilliant
March 25, 2021
A lovely little English cosy mystery beautifully narrated
June 15, 2018
Light crime. Easy read.
July 21, 2017
The St Just series doesn't get any better. This is a profoundly old fashioned book, although it is clearly set in the 21st century. As a police procedural is falls woefully below par when one judges it against writes such as Peter Robinson and Peter James, to name but two. The writer seems to have a template from which to work with the victim for the second time being an apparently dumb blonde who, it transpires, is not dumb. In the previous book in the series that I read (see review, Death and the Lit Chick) the victim was called Kimberley Kalder, in this one Lexy Laurent (both highly unlikely names). Will the victim in the next book be Mavis Mountjoy or some such? The murder, like the one in the earlier book, takes place in a closed community, here a Cambridge college giving a discret circle of possible perpetrators. The denouement takes place with all the suspects present (a la Hercule Poirot). That is so totally improbable in today's climate of PACE with the need for cautions and interviews to take place in nominated police stations and where they are recorded, both on a voice tape and on video. The writer is said to live in the USA although we are told she attended Oxford University and has a graduate degree from Cambridge. It's not clear whether she is American by birth or an emigré Brit. The boook is clearly written for an American readership (first published in the USA in 2010 and in the UK in 2015). One can forgive, therefore, the American spellings such as color. What I find less forgiveable, however, is the use of Americanisms by the British characters. The book is full of them. No Brit says 'gotten' as the past participle of 'get' (I was taught, incidentally, never to use the word 'got' as it is ugly and lazy writing with many, better, alternatives). No 'cell phones' here, but 'mobiles' or 'mobbies'. Women keep their money in a purse which they put in a handbag. The former description is not, in UK English, a synonym for the latter. In the context of the story 'clutch' would be acceptable for a small evening bag. We do not say 'me either' in agreement to a negative by another. For example the comment by one 'I have never flown in a helicopter' would be responded to by a listener with 'me neither'. Again, in school I was taught 'either or' and 'neither nor'. The final point is an interesting one. In one place reference is made by a southern English character to 'scallions'. Southerns don't know this word, calling the items 'spring onions'. That is becoming normal across the country although older northerners might use the words scallions. I find the characterisation of the main character, DCI St Just, very poorly drawn. We know that he has taken up with a lady he met in the previous book and can sketch but doesn't know much about classical music. That's about it. We know next to nothing about his background (why the aristocratic sounding St Just?). He is not nearly as rounded a character as, say, Morse, another detective in a university setting. His sidekick DS Fear and the one DC we are told about are totally cardboard characters. Sorry to be so down on this series (which I cam across by accident), but with so much good crime fiction around by both British and American authors, I don't really have time for potboilers such as this series.
(Despite what Goodreads says, I've only read this book once - that is enough!)
(Despite what Goodreads says, I've only read this book once - that is enough!)
August 16, 2020
Note - this review contains one minor spoiler in paragraph two.
The St Just novels seem to exist in a strangely anachronistic world. The books are populated by aritstocrats and arrivistes, who rely on breeding or money to make their mark in the world. The casts almost invariably consist of tweed-clad eccentrics, brash nouveaux riches and braying Americans. All of the plot twists hang on reputation or money. Although there are references to mobiles phone and GPS, the characters tend to talk as though they are in a P G Wodehouse novel. I have never come across a contemporary story where the characters say "Rather!" or end sentences with "what?" so frequently. It all harks back to the golden age of detective fiction and Agatha Christie is clearly a big influence. But unlike Christie's work, there aren't enough tangible clues scattered throughout the plot to enable the reader to solve the case by themselves. Instead, the dashing Detective Chief Inspector St Just brings all of the characters together at the end for the denouement and rolls out a load of evidence we've never seen before. To my mind, it takes a lot of the fun out of the reading experience.
As a British reader, I sometimes found myself jerked out of the story by linguistic and narrative inconsistencies. Although Malliet studied at Oxford and Cambridge, no-one seemed to tell her that SCR stands for Senior Common Room, rather than the weird-sounding Senior Combination Room (what would they be combining there?!?), which she repeatedly refers to. I also had to look up what "scallions" are - over here we call them spring onions. It suggests that the books weren't adequately proofread before release in Britain. However, a subplot involving home-brewed hooch seems far-fetched, as the legal drinking age in the UK is eighteen, which is also the age that most people go to university. There just wouldn't be any need for an underground bootlegging operation, as most student bars provide alcohol on-site at a vastly reduced price. Also, the odds of having a large enough room in one of the ancient colleges to build such a thing beggars belief, as most of the rooms don't even have separate bathrooms; so where would you get the vast quantities of water from? There's also the small matter of one of the colleges having to beg money from its alumni - the University is one of the richest in the world and with student fees currently at £9000 per year,
and £4 billion in the bank, they aren't short of a few quid.
These quibbles aside, the book is relatively fast-paced, if scanty in terms of character development and plot. There are definitely worse things to read on a wet Sunday afternoon, when you're looking for cosy crime and you have nothing better to do. But for me, this was a boilerplate whodunit that won't linger long in the mind.
The St Just novels seem to exist in a strangely anachronistic world. The books are populated by aritstocrats and arrivistes, who rely on breeding or money to make their mark in the world. The casts almost invariably consist of tweed-clad eccentrics, brash nouveaux riches and braying Americans. All of the plot twists hang on reputation or money. Although there are references to mobiles phone and GPS, the characters tend to talk as though they are in a P G Wodehouse novel. I have never come across a contemporary story where the characters say "Rather!" or end sentences with "what?" so frequently. It all harks back to the golden age of detective fiction and Agatha Christie is clearly a big influence. But unlike Christie's work, there aren't enough tangible clues scattered throughout the plot to enable the reader to solve the case by themselves. Instead, the dashing Detective Chief Inspector St Just brings all of the characters together at the end for the denouement and rolls out a load of evidence we've never seen before. To my mind, it takes a lot of the fun out of the reading experience.
As a British reader, I sometimes found myself jerked out of the story by linguistic and narrative inconsistencies. Although Malliet studied at Oxford and Cambridge, no-one seemed to tell her that SCR stands for Senior Common Room, rather than the weird-sounding Senior Combination Room (what would they be combining there?!?), which she repeatedly refers to. I also had to look up what "scallions" are - over here we call them spring onions. It suggests that the books weren't adequately proofread before release in Britain. However, a subplot involving home-brewed hooch seems far-fetched, as the legal drinking age in the UK is eighteen, which is also the age that most people go to university. There just wouldn't be any need for an underground bootlegging operation, as most student bars provide alcohol on-site at a vastly reduced price. Also, the odds of having a large enough room in one of the ancient colleges to build such a thing beggars belief, as most of the rooms don't even have separate bathrooms; so where would you get the vast quantities of water from? There's also the small matter of one of the colleges having to beg money from its alumni - the University is one of the richest in the world and with student fees currently at £9000 per year,
and £4 billion in the bank, they aren't short of a few quid.
These quibbles aside, the book is relatively fast-paced, if scanty in terms of character development and plot. There are definitely worse things to read on a wet Sunday afternoon, when you're looking for cosy crime and you have nothing better to do. But for me, this was a boilerplate whodunit that won't linger long in the mind.
September 26, 2016
St Michael's College, Cambridge is getting short of money. The college is holding a reunion weekend with some very carefully selected alumni. They have been selected for their wealth in the hope they will make substantial donations to their alma mater. Then Lexi Laurant, one of the guests is found strangled.
No one seems to have liked her very much including her ex-husband Sir James Basset who is also a guest along with his second wife, India. DCI Arthur St Just must try and unravel the case and work out who could have been in the right place at the right time to commit the murder. His new relationship with Portia De'Ath - a Fellow of the college - looks like taking second place yet again during the investigation.
I enjoyed reading this light hearted mystery set in Cambridge. I could however have done without all the Americanisms since the book is set n Cambridge rather than in the US. They were fine in the speech of the American characters but they did grate on me in the rest of the book. I like St Just and his sidekick - DS Fear as well as Portia. I thought the suspects were a nice collection of mildly eccentric characters, many of them with hidden depths. This is the third book in the St Just mystery series.
No one seems to have liked her very much including her ex-husband Sir James Basset who is also a guest along with his second wife, India. DCI Arthur St Just must try and unravel the case and work out who could have been in the right place at the right time to commit the murder. His new relationship with Portia De'Ath - a Fellow of the college - looks like taking second place yet again during the investigation.
I enjoyed reading this light hearted mystery set in Cambridge. I could however have done without all the Americanisms since the book is set n Cambridge rather than in the US. They were fine in the speech of the American characters but they did grate on me in the rest of the book. I like St Just and his sidekick - DS Fear as well as Portia. I thought the suspects were a nice collection of mildly eccentric characters, many of them with hidden depths. This is the third book in the St Just mystery series.
November 1, 2017
I was looking forward to this book. I'd read a lot of good things about the author, and the setting of this novel really appealed as well.
Often when you have high expectations, disappointment can be a good bet. But this took disappointment to new levels.
To call it formulaic would be a gross insult to formulas. There is a murder, there are a series of interviews with suspects and then a completely banal denouement scene ends this dreadful offering.
There is no characterization, the leading, repetitious characters (this is the third in a series, apparently - rest assured, I shan't be bothering to seek out the other two) are little more than cardboard cutouts, there is no dynamic between any of the characters - it is just a dreadful, dreadful excuse for a novel. I could go on, but it would just be more depressing for me, and what would be the point? Move on, life is too short!
Often when you have high expectations, disappointment can be a good bet. But this took disappointment to new levels.
To call it formulaic would be a gross insult to formulas. There is a murder, there are a series of interviews with suspects and then a completely banal denouement scene ends this dreadful offering.
There is no characterization, the leading, repetitious characters (this is the third in a series, apparently - rest assured, I shan't be bothering to seek out the other two) are little more than cardboard cutouts, there is no dynamic between any of the characters - it is just a dreadful, dreadful excuse for a novel. I could go on, but it would just be more depressing for me, and what would be the point? Move on, life is too short!
March 6, 2010
I like academic mysteries and I like St. Just as a detective. I don't like the farfetched ending -- the means of death here was just silly. Impossible to see coming. Book #1 in this series was pretty far-fetched, too. C'mon, Ms. Malliet, give us a chance.
October 28, 2010
I really enjoyed the first book. Thought the second was okay. This one started off so disjointedly that I had a very hard time holding my interest. It didn't have the same fun, spoofy feel I loved in the first.
February 10, 2011
Fun, although nothing but interviews and then a brilliant but hidden insight from our hero is a little too formulaic. Could have used a little more interaction between the hero and his girlfriend or something to break up all the interviewing of suspects.
January 20, 2025
G M MAlliet has the cleverest turns of phrase and plots. Truly enjoyable audiobooks with quite a bit of suspense. Cheerful stories and great characters.
March 24, 2024
A fundraising weekend with a select group of alumni goes very awry when one of the honorees is murdered.
Top leadership for St. Michael's College at the University of Cambridge did their homework but somehow didn't think that having well-known writer Sir James Bassett and his wife, India Bassett, on the same weekend as his ex-wife, would perhaps not be the best thing to do. When they realized what they had unleashed on their campus, the college master, bursar and dean crossed their fingers and proceeded with activities, including a Saturday night program of a Choral Evensong and formal dinner followed by sherry in the Senior Combination Room. But one member is missing: Alexandra "Lexy" Laurant.
A short while later the gathered assembly find out what happened when an undergraduate rushes in to announce he discovered her body near the college boathouse.
Enter the police in the form of Det. Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just, who begins to interview the honored alumni and the leadership and others at the college. One thing is certain, they all are not sharing all their know, partly because they themselves are misled by what they thought they saw.
This is the third in the St. Just series and I think the stories have steadily been getting stronger. There are cleverly drawn characters, several red herrings and a logical conclusion to make this story a clever, insightful read.
Top leadership for St. Michael's College at the University of Cambridge did their homework but somehow didn't think that having well-known writer Sir James Bassett and his wife, India Bassett, on the same weekend as his ex-wife, would perhaps not be the best thing to do. When they realized what they had unleashed on their campus, the college master, bursar and dean crossed their fingers and proceeded with activities, including a Saturday night program of a Choral Evensong and formal dinner followed by sherry in the Senior Combination Room. But one member is missing: Alexandra "Lexy" Laurant.
A short while later the gathered assembly find out what happened when an undergraduate rushes in to announce he discovered her body near the college boathouse.
Enter the police in the form of Det. Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just, who begins to interview the honored alumni and the leadership and others at the college. One thing is certain, they all are not sharing all their know, partly because they themselves are misled by what they thought they saw.
This is the third in the St. Just series and I think the stories have steadily been getting stronger. There are cleverly drawn characters, several red herrings and a logical conclusion to make this story a clever, insightful read.
February 8, 2023
St. Michael's College, Cambridge, is in desperate need of a cash transfusion, so the school plans a weekend of festivities for wealthy alumnae who are targets for substantial donations. Not long into the weekend, the glamorous Lexi Laurant who came with her Latin American hunk is murdered, and Chief Inspector St. Just is brought in to tackle the case.
Familiar setup - a mismatched group is gathered - or stranded - together in a relatively isolated locale and one of them is murdered. Unfortunately, none of the characters really stand out, The "who" in the "whodunit" is pretty easy to figure out and the story plods along, rather than escalates.
One off-putting note were the stereotypical characterizations of the wealthy Texan and the self-absorbed Latin lover. I actually checked the date on the book because these cardboard portraits came off like something written in the 40s. Okay, maybe the author's never been to the US, I get it, but this made the book seem very dated.
March 4, 2023
It's been a while since I've read a St. Just (and Portia!) book - must dig out Death of a Cozy Writer again. Just ordered the Lit Chick one, since I apparently don't have a copy. This one takes place at Cambridge Univ., during an alumni gathering. Only wealthy alumni are invited, since the whole reason is to get donations. One of them is killed, naturally, and several of the others are suspects, giving St. Just a lot of people to interview.
I enjoyed it very much, although it took me longer than usual to get through it, for some reason. A lot of characters to keep track of, even though some of them don't do much in the story. I didn't guess the ending, which makes it a really good book for me!
I enjoyed it very much, although it took me longer than usual to get through it, for some reason. A lot of characters to keep track of, even though some of them don't do much in the story. I didn't guess the ending, which makes it a really good book for me!
May 28, 2018
This should be good. A set of suspects all gathered together in a Cambridge college all with interesting back stories and a common past. However, Malliet simply makes it dull, dull, dull. Having the detective interview the key suspects one after another (and establishing little in the process) is tedious and lazy writing. The dialogue is dull, there is none of the wit and sparkle, the lightness of touch, that is required to get away with the well-worn ‘country-house murder’ genre. Obviously not for me. A paint-by-numbers effort with the least appealing detective (St Just) I have met for a long time.
February 26, 2018
Unfortunately this book was my least favorite in the trilogy. I felt the mystery and characters spun around but never really became any deeper or more interesting. Also, the author reintroduces St. Just and Portia’s relationship, begins to go into more detail, and then all description of her/their relationship just falls off the page. Also, what was the deal with the Japanese student? They mention him as a mysterious figure, St. Just makes note to interview him, and then just nothing. I really liked the other two books in the series, but this one fell flat. 2.5 stars.
October 10, 2020
Good listen. Couldn't figure out who could possibly want to murder Lexy.
All about money, or the lack thereof. Sir James was out and tapping his wife India.
Seems James had given Lexy, his first wife, lifetime rights to profits of his novel after it was a failure. It then became a cult favorite and was being made into a movie. James believed Leskie still loved him and would gladly give him back the rights. Wrong. With her out of the way, the rights came back to him.
The ending where India becomes enamored with Lexy's smarmy Latin lover was not reasonable or done well.
All about money, or the lack thereof. Sir James was out and tapping his wife India.
Seems James had given Lexy, his first wife, lifetime rights to profits of his novel after it was a failure. It then became a cult favorite and was being made into a movie. James believed Leskie still loved him and would gladly give him back the rights. Wrong. With her out of the way, the rights came back to him.
The ending where India becomes enamored with Lexy's smarmy Latin lover was not reasonable or done well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2020
A classic "whodunit" style mystery with a quick pace, charming characters, but a farfetched resolution. I did not think the detectives learned enough clues to put it all together and have the time to fake someone else's death... But overall, I liked Malliet's writing style and her attention to detail on the surroundings (specifically the university buildings) as well as the characters so I will be sure to check out the other 2 books in the series which I have read have more of a humor element to their storylines.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2022
Malliet's third installment in her St. Just series is as well written as ever, this time set in Cambridge at the prestigious and broke St. Michael's College where wealthy alumni have gathered for terrible food, good drinks, and murder. St. Just and his trusty right hand Sergeant Fear must get to the bottom of the crime as they wade through a suspect pool of eccentrics. Atmosphere, writing, and characters, plus a clever solution, make for another great read. St. Just is as charismatic as Father Max, our first favorite. Adult.
March 14, 2017
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A BIG SPOILER
This was a bit of a silly book. I did not realise that this was the third book in a series and having not known that whilst reading, I had assumed it was a young novelist's first book and didn't want to judge harshly.
While other readers have criticised the characters of this book as being cliched, I do think this was intentional by the author, perhaps so that the reader feels familiarity with the characters who are reminiscent of tv crime dramas set in the eccentric worlds of academia and English village greens. However, I felt at times like descriptions were contrived and that the author may have fancied the sound of a particular sentence and so had stuck it in where it wasn't really necessary, making for an unconvincing read at points.
I felt like there was nothing in the book which could have helped the reader to actually try to solve the mystery. Indeed, the big reveal was the sort of thing I might have come up with had I been asked to write a crime novel and given a couple of hours to sort out a plot. The murderer basically created an alibi for himself and confused the time of death for onlookers by pretending to converse with a blow up doll of the victim, jiggling the doll about a bit with his foot to animate it. Had there been a hint at this being the case, it might, MIGHT, have been a forgivable ending, but as there was no way this could have been worked out from the previous chapters, it was just plain daft.
This was a bit of a silly book. I did not realise that this was the third book in a series and having not known that whilst reading, I had assumed it was a young novelist's first book and didn't want to judge harshly.
While other readers have criticised the characters of this book as being cliched, I do think this was intentional by the author, perhaps so that the reader feels familiarity with the characters who are reminiscent of tv crime dramas set in the eccentric worlds of academia and English village greens. However, I felt at times like descriptions were contrived and that the author may have fancied the sound of a particular sentence and so had stuck it in where it wasn't really necessary, making for an unconvincing read at points.
I felt like there was nothing in the book which could have helped the reader to actually try to solve the mystery. Indeed, the big reveal was the sort of thing I might have come up with had I been asked to write a crime novel and given a couple of hours to sort out a plot. The murderer basically created an alibi for himself and confused the time of death for onlookers by pretending to converse with a blow up doll of the victim, jiggling the doll about a bit with his foot to animate it. Had there been a hint at this being the case, it might, MIGHT, have been a forgivable ending, but as there was no way this could have been worked out from the previous chapters, it was just plain daft.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2019
I liked this better than Bk 1 and as much as Bk 2. There were enough surprises and although the murder activity was strange , without giving it away I will say I had a neighbor who became the Man Who Went Into the Cold and used such an artifice in his crime. I also liked the humor , especially phrases about the food..."That was pureed spinach, I'm nearly certain, but what was the fowl? Was it seagull, do you think?"
May 1, 2024
A (fictitious) financially strapped college at Cambridge sponsors a get together of select (i.e. rich) graduates, hoping for some large donations. One of the invited guests is murdered. But why? Was it something to do with the past or the present? DCI St. Just investigates to discover who done it.
The detective character doesn't have a lot of, well, "character," and his romantic obsession still seems a bit over the top, but it still makes for a serviceable generic murder mystery.
The detective character doesn't have a lot of, well, "character," and his romantic obsession still seems a bit over the top, but it still makes for a serviceable generic murder mystery.
March 24, 2017
A usually entertaining book to listen to while packing & cleaning, but I also found it easy for it to become background noise & to miss plot points. There may be something about the voice quality of the narrator that made this easier, which is too bad as I enjoyed the overall story.
Overall, fun mystery, but not overly enthralling.
Overall, fun mystery, but not overly enthralling.
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April 23, 2019Fundraising is always a serious business, not usually deadly serious. This was an OK book, unraveling the mysterious death of a blond bombshell at former her college during a fundraising weekend. It did a thing I don't care for, which is to solve the mystery with information not available to the readers. Good thing this is seemingly the last in this series.
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