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Perry Trethowan #3
The Case of the Missing Brontë
Scotland Yard Superintendent Perry Trethowan is enjoying a vacation evening at a cosy Yorkshire pub when an old woman shows him an original, unpublished Bronte manuscript. Trethowan agrees to engage in a little literary detective work, but he doesn't realise that for a criminal the manuscript is motive for theft, torture - and murder.
Listening Length: 5 hours and 33 minutes
Listening Length: 5 hours and 33 minutes
Audible Audio
First published January 1, 1983
13 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Robert Barnard
202 books89 followersAka Bernard Bastable.
Robert Barnard (born 23 November 1936) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.
Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.
Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.
Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.
Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.
Barnard lived with his wife Louise in Yorkshire.
Series:
* Perry Trethowan
* Charlie Peace
Robert Barnard (born 23 November 1936) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.
Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.
Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.
Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.
Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.
Barnard lived with his wife Louise in Yorkshire.
Series:
* Perry Trethowan
* Charlie Peace
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
May 31, 2018
For my full review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
The Case of the Missing Brontë appealed to me on the basis of the title alone. Even when I read the blurb and discovered that it was not about uncovering the secrets of the family and instead focused on the quest for Emily Brontë’s mythical second novel, I was still intrigued. Fans have speculated for years about whether the mysterious letter from Emily and Anne Brontë’s nefarious publisher referring to Ellis Bell’s second novel represented Mr Newby’s incompetence or something more underhand. Could it be possible that Emily Brontë did write something after Wuthering Heights? If so, what became of it? Which of her sisters could have been responsible for its disappearance? I settled down expectantly to Robert Barnard’s theory of the case.Taking the lead is Barnard’s detective Perry Trethowan, a hero who had already featured in several of Barnard’s other novels. While travelling back from a visit to his family in Northumberland, Perry’s car breaks down and he and his wife Jan and child Daniel are stranded in a small village for the night. Stopping for a drink in the local pub, Perry and Jan have a strange encounter with one Miss Edith Wing, an elderly lady who has recently inherited a large amount of old papers from a relative, including a manuscript that just might be by Emily Brontë.
The recently updated cover design is clearly intended to draw the eye of the vintage crime enthusiast, but the book is set in the 1980s rather than the 40s. This came as a surprise to me since Perry Trethowan is a very traditional detective of the old school, while his wife Jan’s enthusiastic attempts to be useful recall the Girl Friday efforts of Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence. It was interesting too that at one point Perry complains that the whole situation reminds him of Albert Campion, since I had already drawn the connection between the two similarly blank men even if Perry apparently did not think the comparison a compliment.
Still, there were other more practical reasons why a 1940s setting might have improved The Case of the Missing Brontë. Miss Wing is a classic Miss Marple-esque wise-old-lady who introduces herself as being five times great-granddaughter of Mrs Robinson, the temptress who seduced Branwell – this being the apparent path by which the manuscript ended up in her family’s possession. Switching the action back forty years might have allowed her to instead have been a great-granddaughter. Emily Brontë would have been within far closer reach. It would have been a slightly more credible time period for a long lost manuscript to surface.
In essence though, despite the intriguing premise, Emily Brontë represents no more than a McGuffin. When Miss Wing is found beaten within an inch of her life and left for dead, Perry wades in to try to catch the culprit. Clearly, whether or not the manuscript is truly genuine, somebody out there thinks that it might be and they are prepared to go to extreme lengths to lay their hands on it. The novel then becomes a fairly standard race to catch the bad guy with standard-issue villains popping up to thwart Trethowan with varying degrees of creativity.
While most of the literature-seeking lowlifes were fairly cardboardish, I did enjoy the appearance of Amos and Judith Macklehose, who aside from their differing surname were an obvious – and puzzling – reference to Cold Comfort Farm. The description of Judith outlines her as ‘a hard-featured, doom-ridden sort of woman, predestination breathing from her nostrils’ which prompted a further feeling of recognition even beyond the names – that’s definitely Judith Starkadder all right. Why were the two included? A literary doff of the hat? A reference to the loathsome Mybug in Stella Gibbons’ original novel, who believed Branwell wrote all the Brontë fiction? I puzzled over this and finished unsure.
The Case of the Missing Brontë holds on to a lot of old-fashioned Brontë mythology, particularly the fictions peddled by Mrs Gaskell. I wonder if the book was written today, are these still the ideas that people cling on to? Despite all the revisionist work of Juliet Barker, I have a suspicion that people still hold on to the myths. There were references too to Daphne du Maurier’s Infernal World, another book which relied heavily on the imaginative power of its author. It is a peculiar thing how the Brontës are continually reinvented.
Perry and Jan agree in airy tones that they just don’t ‘buy’ the idea that Emily had not written a second novel during the period between the publication of Heights and her death, that these ‘literary types’ are always writing something. The premise of the novel means that there is no real need to connect with who Emily Brontë was as a person but I felt rather nettled by that description. Emily Brontë was never a ‘literary type’ – she was a woman who preferred to live in her imagination. She hated living a life which lacked that liberty, so school did not work out for her and neither did working as a teacher. It seems clear that she agreed to publish with her sisters because it represented a possible avenue for them to make their own living without having to go out to work. The nefarious Mr Newby and some fairly bruising reviews mean that being a published novelist was not a particularly positive experience for her. Perhaps Emily decided that she did not want to share her writing again.
When you put your work out into the world, it takes on a new meaning and a new significance. Each reader forms their own impression. The reader can feel a sense of ownership over the writer. Reviews made multiple assumptions about the kind of person who would be capable of creating Heathcliff. As a blogger, I too have found the experience of putting my writing into the public domain to be challenging at times – it is very unsettling when strangers who do not know you try to stake a claim. How much more so for Emily, who had always been an intensely private person? The false flattery and adulation that her sister Charlotte found so invigorating would have held no appeal for her. Perhaps she preferred to retreat back towards Gondal and to writing for its own sake.
In essence, the evidence for and against Emily Brontë having written a second novel is split and in any case, hardly the point of The Case of the Missing Brontë. This was a quick, light read without a great deal of depth. The idea of a bunch of hired heavies dashing about the countryside trying to get their hands on a ‘Brontë’ was an amusing idea but more than anything this is pure ‘comfort crime’. No need for an English degree to enjoy this one.
The Case of the Missing Brontë appealed to me on the basis of the title alone. Even when I read the blurb and discovered that it was not about uncovering the secrets of the family and instead focused on the quest for Emily Brontë’s mythical second novel, I was still intrigued. Fans have speculated for years about whether the mysterious letter from Emily and Anne Brontë’s nefarious publisher referring to Ellis Bell’s second novel represented Mr Newby’s incompetence or something more underhand. Could it be possible that Emily Brontë did write something after Wuthering Heights? If so, what became of it? Which of her sisters could have been responsible for its disappearance? I settled down expectantly to Robert Barnard’s theory of the case.Taking the lead is Barnard’s detective Perry Trethowan, a hero who had already featured in several of Barnard’s other novels. While travelling back from a visit to his family in Northumberland, Perry’s car breaks down and he and his wife Jan and child Daniel are stranded in a small village for the night. Stopping for a drink in the local pub, Perry and Jan have a strange encounter with one Miss Edith Wing, an elderly lady who has recently inherited a large amount of old papers from a relative, including a manuscript that just might be by Emily Brontë.
The recently updated cover design is clearly intended to draw the eye of the vintage crime enthusiast, but the book is set in the 1980s rather than the 40s. This came as a surprise to me since Perry Trethowan is a very traditional detective of the old school, while his wife Jan’s enthusiastic attempts to be useful recall the Girl Friday efforts of Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence. It was interesting too that at one point Perry complains that the whole situation reminds him of Albert Campion, since I had already drawn the connection between the two similarly blank men even if Perry apparently did not think the comparison a compliment.
Still, there were other more practical reasons why a 1940s setting might have improved The Case of the Missing Brontë. Miss Wing is a classic Miss Marple-esque wise-old-lady who introduces herself as being five times great-granddaughter of Mrs Robinson, the temptress who seduced Branwell – this being the apparent path by which the manuscript ended up in her family’s possession. Switching the action back forty years might have allowed her to instead have been a great-granddaughter. Emily Brontë would have been within far closer reach. It would have been a slightly more credible time period for a long lost manuscript to surface.
In essence though, despite the intriguing premise, Emily Brontë represents no more than a McGuffin. When Miss Wing is found beaten within an inch of her life and left for dead, Perry wades in to try to catch the culprit. Clearly, whether or not the manuscript is truly genuine, somebody out there thinks that it might be and they are prepared to go to extreme lengths to lay their hands on it. The novel then becomes a fairly standard race to catch the bad guy with standard-issue villains popping up to thwart Trethowan with varying degrees of creativity.
While most of the literature-seeking lowlifes were fairly cardboardish, I did enjoy the appearance of Amos and Judith Macklehose, who aside from their differing surname were an obvious – and puzzling – reference to Cold Comfort Farm. The description of Judith outlines her as ‘a hard-featured, doom-ridden sort of woman, predestination breathing from her nostrils’ which prompted a further feeling of recognition even beyond the names – that’s definitely Judith Starkadder all right. Why were the two included? A literary doff of the hat? A reference to the loathsome Mybug in Stella Gibbons’ original novel, who believed Branwell wrote all the Brontë fiction? I puzzled over this and finished unsure.
The Case of the Missing Brontë holds on to a lot of old-fashioned Brontë mythology, particularly the fictions peddled by Mrs Gaskell. I wonder if the book was written today, are these still the ideas that people cling on to? Despite all the revisionist work of Juliet Barker, I have a suspicion that people still hold on to the myths. There were references too to Daphne du Maurier’s Infernal World, another book which relied heavily on the imaginative power of its author. It is a peculiar thing how the Brontës are continually reinvented.
Perry and Jan agree in airy tones that they just don’t ‘buy’ the idea that Emily had not written a second novel during the period between the publication of Heights and her death, that these ‘literary types’ are always writing something. The premise of the novel means that there is no real need to connect with who Emily Brontë was as a person but I felt rather nettled by that description. Emily Brontë was never a ‘literary type’ – she was a woman who preferred to live in her imagination. She hated living a life which lacked that liberty, so school did not work out for her and neither did working as a teacher. It seems clear that she agreed to publish with her sisters because it represented a possible avenue for them to make their own living without having to go out to work. The nefarious Mr Newby and some fairly bruising reviews mean that being a published novelist was not a particularly positive experience for her. Perhaps Emily decided that she did not want to share her writing again.
When you put your work out into the world, it takes on a new meaning and a new significance. Each reader forms their own impression. The reader can feel a sense of ownership over the writer. Reviews made multiple assumptions about the kind of person who would be capable of creating Heathcliff. As a blogger, I too have found the experience of putting my writing into the public domain to be challenging at times – it is very unsettling when strangers who do not know you try to stake a claim. How much more so for Emily, who had always been an intensely private person? The false flattery and adulation that her sister Charlotte found so invigorating would have held no appeal for her. Perhaps she preferred to retreat back towards Gondal and to writing for its own sake.
In essence, the evidence for and against Emily Brontë having written a second novel is split and in any case, hardly the point of The Case of the Missing Brontë. This was a quick, light read without a great deal of depth. The idea of a bunch of hired heavies dashing about the countryside trying to get their hands on a ‘Brontë’ was an amusing idea but more than anything this is pure ‘comfort crime’. No need for an English degree to enjoy this one.
December 27, 2018
Superintendent Perry Trethowan cannot get a break, even on holiday. Trethowan, his wife and young son spend the night in the village of Hutton-le-Dales in Yorkshire when their Morris breaks down. A chance encounter in a pub introduces them to a retired schoolteacher who thinks she may have inherited the manuscript for an unpublished Emily Brontë novel.
When this same poor woman is beaten into unconsciousness, Trethowan is dispatched to trace the culprit and recover the priceless manuscript. As you’d expect from the late author Robert Barnard, the novel is considerably more suspenseful and much funnier than my inadequate description has made it sound. Highly recommended.
I was lucky enough to listen to this book in the Audible format (it’s one of only two Barnard books in the catalog), and narrator Jonathan Keeble does an excellent job portraying the snarky, self-deprecating Perry Trethowan.
When this same poor woman is beaten into unconsciousness, Trethowan is dispatched to trace the culprit and recover the priceless manuscript. As you’d expect from the late author Robert Barnard, the novel is considerably more suspenseful and much funnier than my inadequate description has made it sound. Highly recommended.
I was lucky enough to listen to this book in the Audible format (it’s one of only two Barnard books in the catalog), and narrator Jonathan Keeble does an excellent job portraying the snarky, self-deprecating Perry Trethowan.
July 29, 2016
This was just okay for me. The detective wasn't a particularly memorable character and the villains seemed out of a cartoon.
June 24, 2015
Robert Barnard has been writing mystery fiction for 35 years or so and every now and then I pick one up, and wonder why I haven't read more of his books. They are well-written, usually have just the right amount of humor, and the characters are engaging. Most I've read have been stand-alones, but I realized recently that he's written two not-very-long series -- one featuring policeman Charlie Peace and the other Scotland Yard detective Perry Trethowan. The Case of the Missing Bronte is one of the latter. Although Trethowan is from Scotland Yard, the book takes place in Yorkshire -- Bronte country -- and deals with the theft of a hitherto-undiscovered manuscript by Emily Bronte. (In his other, academic, life, Barnard is a Bronte scholar.) The characters include weedy and annoying academics, truly scary thugs, and an oily clergyman who has a cult-like church and an eye for the main chance. Good fun and a quick read. Recommended.
November 20, 2021
I love long-lost missing manuscript stories, started off well with a lot of potential, but ultimately it fell flat for me. The mystery itself is blah, and an inclusion of thug-type characters was perplexing. Disappointing.
December 30, 2021
Perry Trethowan and family are on their way home from a summer visit to his eccentric family in the family estate, when their car breaks down. They have to stay the night in the small village of Hutton-le-Dales and find lodging at a bed and breakfast. They step out for a drink at a local pub and wind up with Edith Wing sitting at their table.
Edith is a local and has been going through the papers of her cousin, who had left everything to her. Among the things she finds is a sheet of a manuscript that has the handwriting and markings by one of the Brontë sisters.
Edith has approached the Trethowans to find out what she should do. It seems her family had a connection to the Brontë family, but there is no definite proof her sheet is authentic. Perry suggests a couple of sources for her to talk to about authenticating it.
It turns out there are many people interested in the manuscript and some will go to extreme lengths to get hold of it. When Edith winds up in hospital from a brutal attack, Perry finds himself assigned to the case.
Perry may be a gentleman, but he isn’t afraid to get physically involved. A reverend, a librarian, two Norwegians, and a professor are all very interested in acquiring the manuscript, even if it takes a bit of torture to get hold of them.
Barnard writes a good read. The plot moves along well. The characters are well defined and the dialogue is good. There is a nice bit of humour that runs through the book too.
Edith is a local and has been going through the papers of her cousin, who had left everything to her. Among the things she finds is a sheet of a manuscript that has the handwriting and markings by one of the Brontë sisters.
Edith has approached the Trethowans to find out what she should do. It seems her family had a connection to the Brontë family, but there is no definite proof her sheet is authentic. Perry suggests a couple of sources for her to talk to about authenticating it.
It turns out there are many people interested in the manuscript and some will go to extreme lengths to get hold of it. When Edith winds up in hospital from a brutal attack, Perry finds himself assigned to the case.
Perry may be a gentleman, but he isn’t afraid to get physically involved. A reverend, a librarian, two Norwegians, and a professor are all very interested in acquiring the manuscript, even if it takes a bit of torture to get hold of them.
Barnard writes a good read. The plot moves along well. The characters are well defined and the dialogue is good. There is a nice bit of humour that runs through the book too.
March 20, 2025
I am not a literary type, I actively avoid "classics" because I don't like being told what to read LOL. I got this as an audio book, and had no idea who the author was, or the protagonist. But the idea of a missing manuscript for a classic author was interesting. And I Was enjoying the book, until the Nordic thugs showed up. I felt that the violence they brought with them was quite unnecessary. I had assumed this was set in the 70's, it had that bucolic English feel to it, before life got complicated by technology. And the torture scene almost made me stop listening. Was it necessary? No. But as it was close to the end, I continued to listen. But then! SPOILER ALERT, to not find out what the bloody manuscript (pun intended) was, really annoyed me! This book didn't make me want to read/listen to any more of this author. It could have been a nice cozy mystery, and I am very disappointed that it wasn't.
July 12, 2021
Superintendant Perry Trethowan is met zijn gezin op vakantie in Yorkshire als ze een gepensionneerde lerares ontmoeten die in een erfenis een manuscript heeft gevonden dat wel eens Emily Bronte's tweede roman zou kunnen zijn. Dan wordt de oude dame aangevallen en de academicus met wie ze over het manuscript heeft gepraat niet veel later ook...
Personages: plat en soms lachwekkend
Spanning: niet echt spannend
Schrijfstijl: makkelijk leesbaar
Tempo: gelukkig zit de vaart er in
Diepgang: geen, ook niet van toepassing. Voor mij is het een interessante gedachte 'wat nou als Emily Bronte echt een tweede roman heeft geschreven' maar het gaat er verder niet om of het manuscript echt is of niet, alleen dat verschillende mensen denken dat het zou kunnen en zo betrokken raken.
Plot: goed, geloofwaardig en bovendien wordt de relatie tussen de personages duidelijker
Personages: plat en soms lachwekkend
Spanning: niet echt spannend
Schrijfstijl: makkelijk leesbaar
Tempo: gelukkig zit de vaart er in
Diepgang: geen, ook niet van toepassing. Voor mij is het een interessante gedachte 'wat nou als Emily Bronte echt een tweede roman heeft geschreven' maar het gaat er verder niet om of het manuscript echt is of niet, alleen dat verschillende mensen denken dat het zou kunnen en zo betrokken raken.
Plot: goed, geloofwaardig en bovendien wordt de relatie tussen de personages duidelijker
February 13, 2023
This was a fab listen whilst working - so much so that I’ve put the paperback copy on hold from the Library so I can give it a full read!
My first Robert Barnard, and I really enjoyed it. Very much of its era, and I loved his depiction of academics and librarians of the time (1980s).
The details around the manuscript definitely needed more attention than I could give today, so I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into it when my name comes to the top of the waiting list for the library book!
Nevertheless, I was able to guess the perpetrators correctly. It was the whydunnit rather than the whodunnit that makes me want to go through it when I have more time to spare.
Definitely straight in at the top of my favourite listens so far in 2023.
Three Word Review: 1980s librarian drama.
My first Robert Barnard, and I really enjoyed it. Very much of its era, and I loved his depiction of academics and librarians of the time (1980s).
The details around the manuscript definitely needed more attention than I could give today, so I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into it when my name comes to the top of the waiting list for the library book!
Nevertheless, I was able to guess the perpetrators correctly. It was the whydunnit rather than the whodunnit that makes me want to go through it when I have more time to spare.
Definitely straight in at the top of my favourite listens so far in 2023.
Three Word Review: 1980s librarian drama.
April 20, 2024
2 1/2 stars. A fairly light police mystery from the 1980s. I've read a number of this style from the 1980s and the best I can describe it is kind of a cozy police mystery. There are parts that are a police procedural but the detective goes off on his own a lot which isn't that surprising when it comes to the fact it centers on trying to prove if an old manuscript is actually an unpublished Bronte work. But this isn't just about literary detection, anything worth money will bring out the worst in some people as shows up in this book at times. Still, I don't consider this a hard core police procedural.
Nothing bad but other than the connection to a possible an unpublished Bronte I probably won't remember much of this in a few months because it is like many others.
Nothing bad but other than the connection to a possible an unpublished Bronte I probably won't remember much of this in a few months because it is like many others.
February 2, 2025
Not a complete success, although Scotland Yard's Perry's observations still amuse the reader. Not a murder mystery as such, more of Perry's dogged search for the missing manuscript. He sort of knows who the people behind the theft are, and we follow him trying to prove it and find the book. There were two places I felt dragged (one in the religious setting, the other a drawn out showdown with the criminals right at the end.)
Note: although readers in England might be aware of the dynamics of the Bronte children, if you are not, you may benefit from a quick search to read up on their later lives (all too short.) This could help right at the beginning of the story, but later on doesn't come into play at all.
Note: although readers in England might be aware of the dynamics of the Bronte children, if you are not, you may benefit from a quick search to read up on their later lives (all too short.) This could help right at the beginning of the story, but later on doesn't come into play at all.
September 12, 2019
I picked this up in a charity shop in Cornwall and didn't realize it was part of a series until I was about halfway through it. I also realized as I was reading that I'd never read a book set in 1980s England published in 1980s England. I always pay attention to cultural references from the time period, and this one had Margaret Thatcher, East Berlin, and weird American sects coming over to "evangelize" Britain. It was good classic British crime with a 1980s modern twist.
August 19, 2024
I recently read "Wuthering Heights", and wanted to follow up with a cosy mystery about Emily Brontë. This book was just ok. I listened to the audible version, beautiful read by The author is quite knowledgable about the Brontës, but it was a little too much about them, in a just-slightly academic way that did not work for me. However, the reader, Jonathan Keeble, did a wonderful job with the material. I was really glad I listened to the audible version of the book.
December 10, 2017
This book was written in the 1980's, before mobile phones and near-instant communications, and it showed. That was a part of its charm, too.
The mystery was a bit quaint and unravelled rather slowly, and I also enjoyed the ending.
The mystery was a bit quaint and unravelled rather slowly, and I also enjoyed the ending.
August 7, 2017
With that title, of course I had to read it! I don't normally go in for crime novels but this one was witty, cultured and well written. It was a fun read!
October 10, 2017
not as good as some of Barnard's but still good. It is one of the early ones with Charlie Peace.
February 11, 2018
Interesting setup, but I did not like the main character - he did not feel like a policeman to me.
October 26, 2019
Maybe 2.5. I enjoyed it overall, but don't really like when stories end with a big "fistfight."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
September 24, 2023DNF
November 26, 2023
All the elements were present, but something was missing. I got to a certain point and so I made myself finish, but I didn't care much what happened.
May 2, 2024
This book had some very dated references and views that were of their time, but overall it was a fun story.
gave-up
November 10, 2024This one is just not doing it for me.
October 5, 2018
The Case of the Missing Brontë was originally published as The Missing Brontë in 1983. It is part of a series featuring the detective Perry Trethowan. This book sees Perry and his wife, Jan, meeting an old woman named Edith Wing in a Yorkshire pub when their car breaks down on their return to their London home after a visit to Perry’s Northumberland family estate. Wing claims she has a possible lost Brontë manuscript in her possession which was inherited from her cousin after her recent death. She believes it may be Emily Brontë's lost second novel.
After Wing is attacked and the manuscript is stolen, Perry finds himself in the middle of an international crime ring involving a couple of Norwegian heavies, an American dealer/collector of priceless British objects, a bizarre English librarian, a strange transatlantic preacher, and a rather stuffy Professor of English at a rundown Yorkshire university. He encounters all of these characters during his quest to solve the mystery of the lost manuscript.
The overall result is a mixed bag. There are some good points and nice touches in there such as the initial references to the Brontës and Perry’s wry humour. Unfortunately, as the Brontë references were left behind, so was my interest in the novel. The plot plods on although both Perry and the reader know who is responsible. There are no twists and turns, and no real excitement. Even the motives of those involved seem half-hearted. One plot line left technically resolved but which remains unsatisfying is the relationship between Wing and a teenager named Jason. I thought Barnard could have done a lot more with this.
You’re not missing anything if you decided to give this one a miss. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I just got a little bored with the slow and predictable plot and the lack of Brontë material despite its title. I have high expectations of anything that cashes in on the Brontës, and for me, this didn’t quite work because it didn’t have enough of the Brontës to keep me interested as I had picked the text up expecting it to focus on the family’s history in some way in order to solve the mystery at the heart of the novel.
You can find more about this book on my blog: https://brontebabeblog.wordpress.com/...
After Wing is attacked and the manuscript is stolen, Perry finds himself in the middle of an international crime ring involving a couple of Norwegian heavies, an American dealer/collector of priceless British objects, a bizarre English librarian, a strange transatlantic preacher, and a rather stuffy Professor of English at a rundown Yorkshire university. He encounters all of these characters during his quest to solve the mystery of the lost manuscript.
The overall result is a mixed bag. There are some good points and nice touches in there such as the initial references to the Brontës and Perry’s wry humour. Unfortunately, as the Brontë references were left behind, so was my interest in the novel. The plot plods on although both Perry and the reader know who is responsible. There are no twists and turns, and no real excitement. Even the motives of those involved seem half-hearted. One plot line left technically resolved but which remains unsatisfying is the relationship between Wing and a teenager named Jason. I thought Barnard could have done a lot more with this.
You’re not missing anything if you decided to give this one a miss. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I just got a little bored with the slow and predictable plot and the lack of Brontë material despite its title. I have high expectations of anything that cashes in on the Brontës, and for me, this didn’t quite work because it didn’t have enough of the Brontës to keep me interested as I had picked the text up expecting it to focus on the family’s history in some way in order to solve the mystery at the heart of the novel.
You can find more about this book on my blog: https://brontebabeblog.wordpress.com/...
January 13, 2018
Robert Barnard! I haven't read his books in ages. This is the third of the Perry Trethowan series which begins with Perry and his family on vacation to visit other family, all of whom appear exceedingly strange. Which, with Barnard, is completely unsurprising. A great way to start in to the new year. Some really great laughter would be most welcome after 2017!
Well, Barnard produced the goods! Nasty Norwegians, crazed academics, bizarre religious, nice little old ladies, and an ending of a fight worthy of a Viking invasion! He manages to be so over the top that he's wonderfully entertaining. Actually got something read for the first time in a while.
Well, Barnard produced the goods! Nasty Norwegians, crazed academics, bizarre religious, nice little old ladies, and an ending of a fight worthy of a Viking invasion! He manages to be so over the top that he's wonderfully entertaining. Actually got something read for the first time in a while.
September 19, 2016
The premise of this book is interesting being a literary mystery. However, there is not much suspense either plot-wise or perpetrator-wise. The ending seems straight out of a film, with all the villains fighting for the prize and the police arriving at the precise moment.
What had me wondering was why would an Emily Bronte manuscript turn up in the Robinson family and be handed over to their descendants, since Emily was not connected with that family at all.
What had me wondering was why would an Emily Bronte manuscript turn up in the Robinson family and be handed over to their descendants, since Emily was not connected with that family at all.
March 21, 2018
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July 12, 2014
Works by the Brontë sisters were mandatory reading in my high school in the 1960s yet I was never able to finish any of the books. I found the novels boring and I preferred reading various "counterculture" items and watching Monty Python's skit showing a semaphore version of "Wuthering Heights". Maybe that's why I do not particularly like Robert Barnard's "The Case of the Missing Brontë" (1983). It is a well written, and occasionally very funny mystery, but I find it the least interesting of the nine novels by Mr. Barnard that I have read so far.
Superintendent Perry Trethowan is on vacations with Jan and Daniel in Northumberland, when their car breaks down. Staying overnight in a small Yorkshire town they meet Miss Edith Wing, who tells them that she has found a manuscript, probably an unknown Brontë's draft. Few days later, Miss Wing is heavily assaulted and put in a hospital, where she fights for her life. Perry is assigned the case and tries to unravel the mystery of the missing manuscript.
The plot is rather pedestrian, and it is the occasional brilliant writing that somewhat redeems the novel. I laughed at the characterizations of some people from the U.S. - "all wind, or all fraud". The Yorkshire phrase "I said you didn't ought to have" is quite funny. What I enjoyed the most is the following clever wordplay: "[...] he just looked ahead with that bullish expression on his unintelligent policeman's face (I mean, of course, his unintelligent-policeman's face)". What a difference a dash makes! Superb writing! But not a superb book, by any means.
Two stars.
Superintendent Perry Trethowan is on vacations with Jan and Daniel in Northumberland, when their car breaks down. Staying overnight in a small Yorkshire town they meet Miss Edith Wing, who tells them that she has found a manuscript, probably an unknown Brontë's draft. Few days later, Miss Wing is heavily assaulted and put in a hospital, where she fights for her life. Perry is assigned the case and tries to unravel the mystery of the missing manuscript.
The plot is rather pedestrian, and it is the occasional brilliant writing that somewhat redeems the novel. I laughed at the characterizations of some people from the U.S. - "all wind, or all fraud". The Yorkshire phrase "I said you didn't ought to have" is quite funny. What I enjoyed the most is the following clever wordplay: "[...] he just looked ahead with that bullish expression on his unintelligent policeman's face (I mean, of course, his unintelligent-policeman's face)". What a difference a dash makes! Superb writing! But not a superb book, by any means.
Two stars.
June 15, 2014
The title of this crime novel intrigued me so even though it was the third one in a series and I usually try and read series in their correct order I decided to give it a go. I enjoyed it and I shall probably go on and read the rest of the series. It is narrated by Superintendent Perry Trethowan in an easy, conversational style which makes the reader feel part of the story.
Perry and his wife, Jan, are on holiday in Yorkshire when their ancient car breaks down and leaves them stuck in a village overnight. They eat in the local pub that evening and are accosted by an elderly lady who shows them what appears to be the manuscript of a previously unknown and unpublished Bronte novel. When Miss Edith Wing - the lady with the manuscript - is later found with serious injuries in her cottage which has been ransacked Perry is sent from Scotland Yard to investigate.
I enjoyed the literary background to this story and the portraits of the academics involved. I also thought the really obnoxious clergyman from the strange sect who claims to be a cousin of Miss Wing and the rightful owner of the manuscript was very well drawn. While the plot is not complex there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and it is easy to share Perry's frustration as almost everything he discovers leads to a dead end.
If you like your crime novels without too much violence - though there is some in the final scenes - then this may be a series for you.
Perry and his wife, Jan, are on holiday in Yorkshire when their ancient car breaks down and leaves them stuck in a village overnight. They eat in the local pub that evening and are accosted by an elderly lady who shows them what appears to be the manuscript of a previously unknown and unpublished Bronte novel. When Miss Edith Wing - the lady with the manuscript - is later found with serious injuries in her cottage which has been ransacked Perry is sent from Scotland Yard to investigate.
I enjoyed the literary background to this story and the portraits of the academics involved. I also thought the really obnoxious clergyman from the strange sect who claims to be a cousin of Miss Wing and the rightful owner of the manuscript was very well drawn. While the plot is not complex there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and it is easy to share Perry's frustration as almost everything he discovers leads to a dead end.
If you like your crime novels without too much violence - though there is some in the final scenes - then this may be a series for you.
September 27, 2009
[These notes were made in 1987:]. Read in the Dell, 1983 edition. A mystery in which two contending groups of baddies go after what turns out to be a genuine lost Emily Bronte manuscript. The detective, whom I find less sympathetic than the Roderick Alleyn model (Peregrine something), finds himself at one point at the mercy of two exceedingly ugly Scandinavian thugs, who start to torture him. These two are associated with a multimillionaire (who is not caught) and a sleazy minister of the "Church of the Risen Moses." Against this lot, a wimpy university professor and a mad librarian have little chance. I think it's almost certain that Barnard is an ex-academic (or a soon to be ex-). His description of the unspecified northern English university is quite vicious. He also has ("he" being both Barnard and his detective, who writes in the first person) an unhealthy preoccupation with body size and the kind of crude sense of humour which finds shooting in the bum funny. This begins to sound as if I hated the book, which I didn't. I was quite amused by it, and I appreciated the fact that it was very up-to-date. the violence at the end was perhaps a tad gratuitous. And the detective's wife is tediously insulting.
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