A Nice Derangement Of Epitaphs (1992) - Plot & Excerpts
I do so love Ellis Peters. I know she sold a gazillion Brother Cadfael books and so one really can't pity her, but I still think she is under appreciated. Her contemporary mysteries are so good. The writing is clean and lovely and sad. Every book is a meditation on mortality. They're about the awareness of moments, either miniature celebrations of life or tiny one act tragedies that maybe just play out on a person's face. And maybe give away a murderer.And then there's this fullness and contentedness that comes with recognition. The characters recognize what they know, what they're experiencing -- love or maturity or connectedness or disappointment or transition. Maybe it's not realistic to write characters who are so aware of their place in life, but it is very joyful.And then there's a gentle underlying grief because morality includes all those moments and the fact that they are finite.I thought perhaps EP had sons -- although it seems she did not -- because she writes about the inner life of boys and young men with sensitivity. She makes them more than the sum of sports and Tom Sawyer, spittin' and sassin', the kind of Dennis the Menace, isn't he adorable when he's naughty? hijinks that can make for some very wearisome boy characters. I find myself torn now between my old crush on Dominic Felse and hoping my son turns out like him.
Lettura collettiva di Marzo, consigliato da Blackcat.Ellis Peters è una giallista inglese, scomparsa nel 1995, famosa per i suoi "gialli" medievali di Fratello Cadfael.In questo romanzo il protagonista è l'ispettore Felse alle prese con una tomba violata e un segreto vecchio di due secoli.La struttura è da giallo classico alla Christie, l'ambientazione è la campagna inglese col suo micromondo, forse ormai scomparso, ma godibilissimo nella lettura.Il caso di cui si occupa Felse non è forse tra i più interessanti tra quelli narrati dalla Peters e da ciò dipendono, in parte, le due stelline.Un'opera che va bene per gli amanti del genere, che ne potranno apprezzare le atmosfere, non indicata, invece, per chi conosce poco il giallo classico inglese, poiché non ne potrà gustare le sfumature.
What do You think about A Nice Derangement Of Epitaphs (1992)?
Another awesome Ellis Peters. In a resort town, a famous writer is spearheading the opening of a several-hundred-year-old tomb in a church that gets buried by sand every few years. Inspector George Felse and his wife and son get in on the act when son Dom braves a dangerous ocean to help out a boy he thinks is drowning.There are smugglers' tunnels and a missing body. For these reasons alone, I would have read this book. However, Pargeter's plots just clip along and the characters and their complex motivations keep you fascinated to the end, even though Felse seems to have little to do to solve the crime. Great puzzler.
—Kate
