Dying Fall

Sophie Rivers Mystery #1

by Judith Cutler

Sophie Rivers, English lecturer and amateur singer has a good life and friends to share it with, then suddenly things go badly wrong. One of her students is stabbed to death on the college premises and worse still, her best friend, George, appears to suffer a tragic accident.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Judith Cutler was born and bred in the Midlands, and revels in using her birthplace, with its rich cultural life, as a background for her novels. After a long stint as an English lecturer at a run-down college of further education, Judith, a prize-winning short-story writer, has taught Creative Writing at Birmingham University, has run occasional writing course elsewhere (from a maximum security prison to an idyltic Greek island) and ministered to needy colleagues in her role as Secretary of the Crime Writers' Association.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

As followers of the blog know, I am sucker for academic mysteries and this one had been on my "To Be Found" list for quite some time (possibly since the 90s when it came out...). I love a good murder or two in the ivory towers. Only William Murdock College, inner-city college in Birmingham, isn't exactly the ivory towers of Oxford or Cambridge. It's a hodge-podge of buildings with only one very ugly tower of sorts. Sophie Rivers, our heroine, teaches English and often works late grading all those papers that come with the job. On just such a night, a tired Sophie gets in the elevator and doesn't notice until it's traveled several levels that there's a body slumped against the elevator's wall.

At first she thinks Wajid, one of the computer students, is sick. But when she jostles him, he falls forward and she sees the knife sticking out of his back. The police are apt to believe that there has been some trouble within the Muslim community and Wajid came out on the wrong side of the dispute. But then Sophie's best friend dies on the site of new Music Center--which though already in use appears to still be under construction. George's death is put down as an accident, but Sophie is convinced there's been foul play. The police take her seriously once she's attacked and another student provides her with clues from Wajid's computer notes. But will her police guard be able to keep her safe from a killer determined to escape detection...even if it means killing one more time.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. Sophie is an odd character, but one I took to despite her oddness. I found her reactions quite believable and while she did come across many of the primary clues in the mystery, she wasn't trying to play detective. She just wanted the police to take George's death more seriously than they were and wanted to protect the friends who were coming under suspicion. My primary difficulties with the story were two-fold. First, as soon as the culprit came in view I knew exactly where things were headed with that person. They might as well have been labeled with a neon sign that said "Looky here. The Killer has come on stage." And second, there were too many scenes (including part of the wrap-up) where I felt as though I had come in on conversations that had been in progress and some of the important information had already been handed out. It was as if certain things didn't need to be said because we already knew them. Only we didn't. Knowing who the killer was didn't mean I knew exactly why and wherefore...and too many of the whys and wherefores weren't explained properly. ★★★

It appears that this is the first of a series starring Sophie which baffles me a bit--because, again, while I like her, I don't see her as the series amateur detective type.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This contemporary-is (1995) book felt very much like a BBC program. The amateur sleuth and police work together, for the most part, to solve murders and crimes. This was more police procedural than cozy with a mix of classical music and college courses set in the Birmingham area of England. Some of the items dated the story (486 computers and portable modems) and some of the British slang was, fortunately, easily looked up through the Hoopla app, iPad and online dictionaries. Overall an interesting mystery, first book in the series.

[Emma Linley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best modern female crime fiction writers

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a Birmingham college , Lecturer Sophie finds a body in the lift she had gone into and then finds herself in danger as she becomes a target of the killer. A good mystery with interesting characters.

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophie Rivers, college lecturer in her thirties, finds a body in the lift at the college where she works. A student has been murdered. When her old friend, George, is found dead following what could be an accident and might be something more sinister she starts to wonder what on earth is going on. She starts asking awkward questions and someone tries to kill her so she knows she’s on the right track and there is something sinister going on.

This book kept me turning the pages long after I had intended to go to sleep. Sophie is a likeable characters and all the characters in the book are well drawn. The musicians who Sophie counts as friends and the charismatic conductor who seems to have taken a shine to her are believable and interesting characters. The plot is quite complex and it is only when everything is finally unravelled that I appreciated all the ramifications. The book is set in Birmingham – which makes a refreshing change from London or the Home Counties.

The book is well written and an enjoyable read for anyone who enjoys crime novels with not too much on the page violence. When I’d finished reading it I immediately downloaded the next in the series and I’m looking forward to reading that.