Death at the Alma Mater by G. M. Malliet
St. Michael’s College is one of the lesser known of the thirty-two colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. It was founded during the time that King Henry VIII was divesting himself of his “monasteries’. It has never been very well funded, often flirting with financial disaster. The college masters would come up with different campaigns over the centuries to raise money in a very haphazard fashion. Unusually this involved asking select old members for money. They apparently never looked across the pond to copy the American fashion of Alumna associations, which begin asking for money on a regular basis beginning the year after graduation regardless of financial stability.
On this auspicious occasion the Masters decided to ask a small group of select successful members from a particular era to come for a summer weekend so that they could proceed to wine them, dine them and pluck them as clean as possible. The Bursar would choose the best candidates for their plot while the Master, the Dean and the cook would plan the festivities that would loosen the purse strings or the leather wallet flaps as the case might be. Their main concern was how to convince the old graduates to donate money without spending any money on them. This was not too great a difficulty since the cook was an expert at making three day old bread taste like bread pudding.
Among the guests were to be Sir James, knighted for his services to literature and his wife India. Their son Sebastian is a current St. Michael’s student with an agenda of his own.
Lexy, beautiful, sexy and girl about town is a celeb who was married to James while at St. Mike’s is also coming, but she is to be with the hunky Geraldo who also was a an alum. Lexy is known mostly for her élan and for her famous haircut.
Coming as well from afar are Karl and Connie, and Texan, Augie, all three brash Americans with more to them than noise.
There are a few others mid summer visitors invited in the mix who are important, but more important is what the bursar over looked in his greed. That was the little scandal that shook the ivied walls whilst all these players were lolling about the Cam.
Sir James had at one point during their years at University been married to lovely Lexy. India Burrows, now Lady Bassett planned and executed a major campaign to make James her own. Lexy claims she no longer has feelings for James despite the fact that she stalked him like prey in her youth after the divorce.
Now Lexy somehow winds up on a cold marble slab having been seen last by many witnesses speaking to James. He claims she still had feelings for him.
Detective Inspector Arthur St. Just of the Cambridge police is called to the scene of the crime. He and his Sergeant have the doubtful pleasure of trying to extend the weekends of all the alums while they search for the murderer. Fortunately for St. Just’s investigation, his inamorata Portia De’Ath is a professor at Cambridge and was present at the welcoming dinner on the first night of the weekend, so that she could provide a fairly good idea of the whereabouts of all the suspects at the crucial time.
The mystery at this point is who benefits from Lexy’s death? Her Latin lover, her too urbane titled ex-husband, the conniving second wife, the oil-rich Texan who was spurned by Lexy or was it some one else who had run ins with Lexy back in the halcyon days of college life?
Detective Sergeant Fear thinks they would get through the interview’s a bit better if the suspects would stop using literary references that he can’t spell. St. Just knows the answer is right in front of him he just can’t see it yet. However before the ink is dry on the notes from the first murder another shrouded body is seen being carried out. The Master and the Bursar have begun to rue the day they went looking for donations. They have already gotten more than they bargained for.
This is a modern story told in the fashion of a golden age mystery. I think it is a keeper.
This is the third of G. M. Malliet’s St. Just series. The first THE DEATH OF A COSY WRITER won an Agatha award. Her second DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK was a finalist in the running for the 2010 Anthony award for best paperback. Malliet can take any setting, stick a fork in it and let delicious irony seep out and give you a taste both tart and sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment