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Virginia Freer #8
Beware of the Dog
When Helen Lovelace dies peacefully at the age of eighty-eight, her affable grandnephew Nicholas Duffield, recently returned from Australia, and his stunning cousin, Kate Galvin, arrived from America for the funeral, stand to share a substantial inheritance.
When Kate is murdered in her bed, suspicion naturally falls on Nicholas. Helen's longtime housekeeper and companion refuses to believe that the gracious young man could have committed the crime and implores her neighbor, Virginia Freer, to prevail upon her estranged husband, the exasperating charmer Felix, to prove Nick's innocence.
A fanciful con artist, perpetual liar, and petty crook, Felix is fascinated by the puzzle of embittered neighbors, poisoned pet, and purloined emeralds. Virginia apprehensively observes her infuriatingly clever onetime spouse sort out the missing pieces supplied by a local jewelry maker who knows more about the emeralds than he has told the police; by a mentally retarded young man whose selflessly devoted mother harbors a deep-seated animosity toward the murdered woman; and by a successful crime writer with her own reasons for hating the beguiling Kate.
When the housekeeper almost becomes a second victim, Felix astutely picks up on an obscure clue and proves what he has suspected all along.
When Kate is murdered in her bed, suspicion naturally falls on Nicholas. Helen's longtime housekeeper and companion refuses to believe that the gracious young man could have committed the crime and implores her neighbor, Virginia Freer, to prevail upon her estranged husband, the exasperating charmer Felix, to prove Nick's innocence.
A fanciful con artist, perpetual liar, and petty crook, Felix is fascinated by the puzzle of embittered neighbors, poisoned pet, and purloined emeralds. Virginia apprehensively observes her infuriatingly clever onetime spouse sort out the missing pieces supplied by a local jewelry maker who knows more about the emeralds than he has told the police; by a mentally retarded young man whose selflessly devoted mother harbors a deep-seated animosity toward the murdered woman; and by a successful crime writer with her own reasons for hating the beguiling Kate.
When the housekeeper almost becomes a second victim, Felix astutely picks up on an obscure clue and proves what he has suspected all along.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
1 person is currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
E.X. Ferrars
58 books22 followersAka Elizabeth Ferrars
Elizabeth Ferrars is a pseudonym of Morna Doris MacTaggart Brown. She was born in Rangoon, Burma.
Elizabeth Ferrars is a pseudonym of Morna Doris MacTaggart Brown. She was born in Rangoon, Burma.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 27, 2020
First sentence: "As funerals go, Helen Lovelock's was a cheerful one." When a great-nephew and great-niece turn up to receive their inheritance, one of them is murdered and the other naturally becomes a suspect. The protagonist, Virginia Freer, who is "quietly feminist," finds herself matching wits with her sticky-fingered, disreputable ex-husband to help her solve the murder. A manageable number of suspects, all with a good motive, make for an interesting cast of characters and an excellent mystery. I didn't figure it out until the final few pages, so the ending came as a satisfying surprise.
Great read! This is the fourth title by E.X. (Elizabeth) Ferrars I've read. I can't say I have enjoyed this one that much more than the other three, but I've developed such an appreciation for her writing that this gets the benefit from the others I've read, so 5 STARS. Ferrars' writing is definitely in the class of Agatha Christie. I so regret that more of her books aren't readily available. I managed to find this one at a local library before the home quarantine went into effect this month. I will be hunting down as many titles as I can that are affordable. I so hope they release more for Kindle one of these days.
Great read! This is the fourth title by E.X. (Elizabeth) Ferrars I've read. I can't say I have enjoyed this one that much more than the other three, but I've developed such an appreciation for her writing that this gets the benefit from the others I've read, so 5 STARS. Ferrars' writing is definitely in the class of Agatha Christie. I so regret that more of her books aren't readily available. I managed to find this one at a local library before the home quarantine went into effect this month. I will be hunting down as many titles as I can that are affordable. I so hope they release more for Kindle one of these days.
September 24, 2016
As a mystery, this book was OK. It seemed kind of old-fashioned, the type where there's a quick, off-scene murder and then the cast of suspects spends most of the story talking to each other until the eccentric amateur sleuth, who is somewhat removed from the situation, figures out what happens and explains it all in the end. And when Hercule Poirot does that, it's usually great fun to read about. But our hero--Felix Freer, sort of ex-husband of our narrator, Virginia (they're separated but not divorced) is no Poirot. Felix is a compulsive liar, kleptomaniac and apparently either a con man or just pathologically lazy. There are situations when this sort of character works well (I loved Sawyer in the series Lost, for example), but I just didn't like Felix, and every time he opened his mouth to spout off with a new whopper, I groaned inside.
There were a couple of other bones to pick as well, one being some basic continuity errors. We are told that the character of Kate is an actress who's been living in Hollywood, but in one mention, she's in New York, and in another, she's a theater actress, not movies. But it doesn't even matter because the only incident in which her being an actress is important to the plot was kind of distasteful to me. Another error concerned a character who wrote a mystery novel--at one moment, we're told that it was televised, then a few pages later, her husband says they're hoping it will be televised. Even with Felix, Virginia thinks at one moment about his uncanny perception of character, but later she thinks how he takes irrational dislikes to people. Overall, I got the feeling that this book was dashed off quickly, given a cursory edit, and then shipped to the publisher.
The book is oddly old-fashioned in a few other respects as well. For example, at one point, Virginia thinks of a character who is described as a "squat, solid old woman": "...Anna Cox seemed to me to be one of those sexless beings who perhaps are really lesbians, though they have never found this out about themselves."
***Minor spoiler--does not reveal whodunnit***
Here's the part I found distasteful. One of the character's motives for killing our actress victim Kate is that she accused this woman's son, who is simple, of molesting her when Kate was ten years old. But Felix isn't buying it.
"I don't understand you!" Anna said, her voice rising. "Are you suggesting it didn't happen?"
"I think he must have been reading up on his Freud," I said. "He's wondering if the whole thing was a fantasy of Kate's because she'd wanted it to happen and what really upset her was that it didn't."
"That did occur to me as a possibility," Felix admitted. "And the tears and the terror... Well, she did turn into an actress, didn't she? Perhaps she'd some ability in direction even when she was a child."
P.S., The book does strongly imply that ten-year-old Kate falsely accused him of molesting her for attention or who knows why. Ugh. I found that whole subplot so distasteful.
There were a couple of other bones to pick as well, one being some basic continuity errors. We are told that the character of Kate is an actress who's been living in Hollywood, but in one mention, she's in New York, and in another, she's a theater actress, not movies. But it doesn't even matter because the only incident in which her being an actress is important to the plot was kind of distasteful to me. Another error concerned a character who wrote a mystery novel--at one moment, we're told that it was televised, then a few pages later, her husband says they're hoping it will be televised. Even with Felix, Virginia thinks at one moment about his uncanny perception of character, but later she thinks how he takes irrational dislikes to people. Overall, I got the feeling that this book was dashed off quickly, given a cursory edit, and then shipped to the publisher.
The book is oddly old-fashioned in a few other respects as well. For example, at one point, Virginia thinks of a character who is described as a "squat, solid old woman": "...Anna Cox seemed to me to be one of those sexless beings who perhaps are really lesbians, though they have never found this out about themselves."
***Minor spoiler--does not reveal whodunnit***
Here's the part I found distasteful. One of the character's motives for killing our actress victim Kate is that she accused this woman's son, who is simple, of molesting her when Kate was ten years old. But Felix isn't buying it.
"I don't understand you!" Anna said, her voice rising. "Are you suggesting it didn't happen?"
"I think he must have been reading up on his Freud," I said. "He's wondering if the whole thing was a fantasy of Kate's because she'd wanted it to happen and what really upset her was that it didn't."
"That did occur to me as a possibility," Felix admitted. "And the tears and the terror... Well, she did turn into an actress, didn't she? Perhaps she'd some ability in direction even when she was a child."
P.S., The book does strongly imply that ten-year-old Kate falsely accused him of molesting her for attention or who knows why. Ugh. I found that whole subplot so distasteful.
January 24, 2013
When old Mrs. Lovelock dies, her great niece returns from the United States and promptly is murdered. Mrs. Lovelock's companion Anna Cox begs Virginia Freer to invite her estranged husband Felix to visit, hoping that he will be able to clear the leading suspect: Mrs. Lovelock's nephew Nick. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that when I'm reading Ferrars at her best, I always think of George Meredith's line: "We are betrayed by what is false within."
July 19, 2021
There's some ableism in this one so be on the lookout. But also I just love the way this book ends for Virginia and Felix. I was worried what direction this would go but it ends entirely satisfactorily for me.
May 23, 2021
Beware of the Dog by E.X. Ferrars is a mystery good read.
July 18, 2025
Decent but not particularly entertaining. Interesting that it switched up some normal mystery cliches but I am not going to read more from the author.
November 16, 2014
The mystery was okay but it was a disappointing ending for the last book of the series. The main characters didn't grow much through the course of the series. I found them a tad depressing.
February 4, 2017
(4.25 stars) One of Ferrars's best late books. The characters are engaging people and the solution is elegant and surprising.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews