Title: Lessons in Loving Thy Murderous Neighbour (A Cambridge Fellows Mysteries Novella)
Author: Charlie Cochrane
Publisher: The Right Chair Press
Length: 86 Pages
Category: Historical, Mystery
At a Glance: I highly recommend this book for all lovers of good English mysteries. Simply delightful.
Reviewed By: Carrie
Blurb: Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith like nothing more than being given a mystery to solve. But what happens when you have to defend your greatest enemy on a charge of murder?
Review: Jonty and Orlando are back with another Cambridge Fellows mystery. It’s been awhile since we have had a mystery from Charlie Cochrane, but it was worth the wait! Jonty and Orlando have settled into the prime of their lives, working at their beloved St. Bride’s College. These two men have been together some twenty years now, and it is now 1922. They’ve come a long way from the first book in the series, but their journey has been colorful, sometimes hazardous, but always entertaining. They have a strong circle of forward-thinking friends at St. Brides, who provide the two with an underpinning of support pretty much unheard of at that time in history. As often happens among neighboring colleges, there is a bit of a rivalry between St. Bride’s and Assumption (or, the college that must not be named). A poor boy over at “that college” has had his head bashed in, and the prime suspect is a man named Owens, the head master at the college—a man we have met before in previous books, not a very nice man, and one who brought grievous charges against Jonty and Orlando as well as some of their friends. Even with so many years together, Jonty and Orlando are still very much aware that if they were to be exposed, not even their beloved Forsythia Cottage could shield them. In this story, they are not asked to defend Owens but merely find out the truth of what happened to the poor student. The descriptors of the colleges create a feel and a sense of place for the murder, and the character descriptions provide us with an accurate cast of characters.
As always, Cochrane’s use of period verbiage and a very strong sense of place help us immerse ourselves in her mystery. Nothing is at it seems in this story, and I guarantee you won’t know who did it until the very end. I guessed wrong no less than three times. What I truly love about these mysteries is the step by step, logical fact-finding pathways with which Jonty and Orlando come to their deductions. There are no leaps of unsubstantiated facts here. There are, of course, little nuggets left along the pathway that Cochrane wants you to follow, which will lead you to the logical conclusion and, of course, whodunit, but they are not always obvious and many will only become known when you figure out the killer.
The return of some of our favorite supporting cast of characters was a nice touch and an homage to past books. The pacing on this one is great and moves along at a good clip; even though this book is a novella, it has the feel of a much longer mystery novel.
I have been a fan of this series from book one which came out in 2008. Jonty and Orlando just keep getting better with age, and I, for one, would love to keep reading their mysteries. I can so see the two sitting and sipping tea in their old age, minds still sharp as tacks, and helping the local constabulary solve their unsolvable cases. I highly recommend this book for all lovers of good English mysteries.
“You do talk twaddle.” Orlando clasped Jonty’s hand in both of his. “And I wouldn’t have you any different.”
“You can have may anyway you like tonight,” Jonty murmured, “so long as we solve this problem.”
Simply delightful.
You can buy Lessons in Loving Thy Murderous Neighbour here:
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