Holy Terrors

Theodora Braithwaite #4

by D.M. Greenwood

Compared to the inner-city parish of St. Sylvester's, St. Veep's Girls' School in the heart of leafy Kensington is a haven of civility but Theodora Braithwaite quickly realises that there are unpleasant undercurrents beneath the harmonious surface. As she moves between the contrasting worlds of Kensington, the multicultural parish of St Sylvester’s and finally Cyprus, she begins to find her way through a maze of corruption, cupidity and incompetence that reaches back to the second world war and beyond.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

216 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 1994

About the author

Dr D(iane) M Greenwood described herself as "a low level ecclesiastical civil servant". Coming originally from Norfolk in England, she took a first degree in classics at Oxford, then, as a mature student, a second degree in theology at London University. She taught at various schools before working for the diocese of Rochester. She was described by an ex-pupil as "a classics teacher of terrifying erudition and eccentricity". She retired as diocesan director of education for the diocese of Rochester in 2004. She published nine Theodora Braithwaite novels between 1991 and 1999. She was last heard of living in Greenwich with her lurcher bitch.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so very thrilled to find this book in a fab used book store in Canmore while on my holiday to the Canadian Rockies. I loved DM Greenwood's books back when they were just-published contemporary mysteries, and now that they are 20 years old and all my copies are tucked away in storage it was a delight to get to re-read one. I found I'd completely forgotten this one, except for the name of one of the characters, one Oenone Troutbeck. A hard name to forget! I think there's a reason I'd forgot this one, though, which is that its not the best in the series and it rather falls apart at the end when it strays out of its comfort zone all the way to Cyprus.

At the core this series is about a specific subculture, that of High Church Anglicanism. It's a subculture with a very special place in English life: officially enshrined at the heart of the establishment it is in practice soundly neglected by the citizenry, who don't approve of godbothering on the whole. Religion has a place and it should stay there is the general feeling, which leads to some frustration for the few very religious Anglicans who want it to have more of a role in daily life. DM Greenwood writes with modulated passion about her church and its interaction with the general public, and her detective is a deacon named Theodora Braithwaite who over the course of the series manages to poke her nose into many nooks and crannies of the church. The books are delightfully intelligent, witty and acidic when they stay close to what DM Greenwood knows, modern (as of the 1990s) English life and the Church of England. But this book goes deep into Greek Orthodoxy and the gigantic mess that is the partition of Cyprus and that is where it falls apart. If it had just stayed with its initial juxtaposition of two schools, one highly selective independent school and one bog standard comprehensive and played out its kidnapping and murder tale on that canvas I think it would have been as good as I remember the series as a whole to be. But as it starts to deal with Foreigners, their Foreign Ways and the acknowledged truth that All Those People Look Alike (honestly at one point the detective is congratulated on being able to spot distinctions in appearance between Cypriots. Being able to recognize a specific Cypriot is apparently high-grade detecting...) it falls into a regrettable Blimpishness that just tears the civilized fabric of the novel to pieces, and that is a real shame. And I've docked it two stars. The first half of the novel is a five star read, blissfully entertaining, but the shambles that is the last half is just a disgrace.

However, picking up this book encouraged me to look about for more and I've now got three more all cozily waiting on my Kindle for me to read them. So I shall find out if this series truly is as good as I remember it being or if I'm a more discriminating reader in my 40s than I was in my 20s...

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theodora Braithwaite has been asked to do some teaching at St Veep's - an exclusive girls' school which her grandmother attended. Meanwhile her vicar is teaching at a large comprehensive school at the opposite end of the educational spectrum. A pupil is kidnapped from St Veep's and a pupil is killed in the comprehensive school - there couldn't be any connection, could there?

Both Theodora and Geoffrey think there could be a connection and that it could reach back into the past. They start to do some digging on their own account as they don't feel that anyone is taking enough interest in either of the events.

I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as I enjoyed the first three books in the series - possibly because I mainly read it in very short spells so I didn't feel I really got into the story as I have done with the previous books. The plot was quite complicated as well and I think I got confused. I shall go on to read the rest of the series though as I think I was probably just in the wrong mood for this particular book.

[Cary · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I've been quite enjoying these books, I don't think I'll bother with any more of them. The lack of coherence across the series has become increasingly irritating. In the second book there's no indication she's ever been involved with an investigation before. Character names are reused (minor characters, but it can be confusing). Someone she seemed to work fairly closely with and get on well with in a previous book appears in this one as someone she doesn't seem to know very well and who seems slightly antagonistic. There's just what feels like a lack of attention to detail that jars, and regrettably spoils an otherwise potentially very enjoyable series with an interesting main character.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the background of iconography in this one - including the discussions about the cultural versus religious significance. This takes the theme, explored through the earlier books in the series, of the cultural role of the English Church versus its religious life into a new context, that of the Greek Church and its diaspora.

While this is a concept of interest to me, it over-complicated what is still primarily crime fiction. This one needed either to be much longer, or much simpler. The genre doesn't, in my view, quite bear the weight of the background theme. In this case, it was the detection narrative that suffered.

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is hard to rate as the mystery aspect of it didn’t work at all for me but I did enjoy the portrayal of the two different types of schools and the people who worked in them. A failure as a mystery novel but a nice depiction of the educational and clerical worlds in the early 1990s.

[Maureen Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

ACCEPT YOUR LOT IN LIFE MYSTERY

A well considered mystery with interesting characters, religious symbols, and recent history of Cyprus. Unfortunately men are happy to keep women making meals and detecting in secret.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Compared to Deacon Theodora Braithwaite's inner-city parish of St Sylvester's, ST Veep's Girls' School, in the heart of leafy Kensington, is a haven of scholarly harmony. But when her first morning there is interrupted by news of an act of violence that rocks St Veep's to its elegant foundations, Theodora begins to think her visits to the school might be more eventful than she anticipated.

"Meanwhile her vicar, the sprightly Geoffrey Brighouse, has encountered an equally disturbing incident at a South London comprehensive. Slowly an irresistible link between the two events starts to emerge, as Theodora threads her way through a maze of corruption, cupidity and incompetence that reaches back to Cyprus, the Second World Way and beyond ..."
~~back cover

I just couldn't stick this book. I think religion & churches are going to be an intergal part of the plot, but it was just wading through too much religion & church for my tastes. Not to mention that the plot, at least up through half way through the book, seemed very complicated & convoluted -- not my favorite style of mystery!

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be more a treatise of religion in a multicultural society. The first 2/3 of the story seemed to be a discussion on philosophies with a murder as well as a kidnapping that no one seemed to have any emotions about, hovering in the background.

A girl of action rather than words, the iconic Buffy the vampire slayer once said to Giles the librarian after one of his discourses " Can you vague that up for me a bit more." That's how I felt about this book.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please see my review of 'Every Deadly Sin.'