Don't Cry For Me Aberystwyth (2015) - Plot & Excerpts
Tinker, tailor, Patagonian sailor, ex-Nazi . . . Hoffman. He's coming to save the townspeople. Hopeman. A false prophet, cut-price Messiah . . . The man they send when the town clock forgets to tick.When a department store Santa is found dead and mutilated in an Aberystwyth alley, the discovery that he has written the word Hoffman in his own blood causes stirrings in the world of espionage. Someone claiming to be the Queen of Denmark pays private detective Louie Knight to investigate the murder, while Louie's assistant Calamity has got hold of a Pinkerton Detective Agency manual, and decides to investigate the case using their methods. The name Hoffman is linked to a disaster in the Patagonian campaign (Wales' Vietnam), the capture of Adolf Eichmann, and a possible descendant of the Sundance Kid, but no-one knows who Hoffman is and why he has finally decided to come in from the cold. A stuffed collie in Aberystwyth museum seems to be at the centre of the mystery, and the re-release of a film about his exploits in Patagonia raises strong emotions among the disillusioned veterans of that conflict.A darker tale than the first three books in the series, but equally as funny.
Very different in tone from Pryce's previous comedic gems with a serious twist. _Don't Cry_ is a meditation on despair in all its flavors, and sees Louie's life slowly unwind, through his own blindness as much as through the truly creepy sabotaging of it by the villains. Lines are crossed, relationships critically damaged - and we get a story of a war crime that manages to both be a hilarious play on movie cliches and heartbreaking at the same time. Beginning with the holiday-season murder of a Santa and the offer of a reward of the first-edition works of Kierkegaard, _Don't Cry_ is unrelentingly grim. And yet, redemption does come, so stay with Louie through the darkness.One thing that was a minor off-note in the previous volume is troubling here: the racial stereotyping goes beyond genre cliche to the uncomfortable, as Nazi-hunting is a major theme, and the Mossad agent is a bag of derogatory imagery.
What do You think about Don't Cry For Me Aberystwyth (2015)?
who killed Santa? 3.5 stars- I liked this one and the lower rating for this one compared with the first books in the series is probably due to being a bit Aberystwythed out of it. This is the 4th, (i think) in the series I have read without a real break from them. However, i highly recommend this series to anyone who likes noir/detective/good books in general. It is at once entertaining, well-written and, best of all, funny. The humor is rarely light-hearted though, more often bitingly sardonic actually. But Pryce is so insightful that it doesn't get old.Great story, talented author, you can't go wrong. It was good enough that I already obtained the next two in the series
—Amanda
In the strange world in which Louie Knight lives, Aberystwyth is part of the independent state of Wales, and England is abroad. Louie is a PI, with a young assistant called Calamity Jane, an on/off girlfriend called Myfanwy, and a father called Eeyore (he looks after donkeys) who he sometimes meets in town. Also, Patagonia is an ex-Welsh colony. There was a terrible war there, and something happened that was so frightful it sent the priest mad; a few people know what it was, but they would rathe
—Peter Auber
While the second and third books in Malcolm Pryce's Abertystwyth series didn't quite make it for me--I thought he had tried to stretch the material too far--this fourth mystery is probably the best of the bunch. It's Christmastime in Aberystwyth and Santa (the only Jewish man in town) is shot dead. The Queen of Denmark wants the case solved, but the pressure is so great that Louie and Calamity split. Louie has to deal with another out-of-town cop, a Pieman, Mossad, the Pinkertons, and more besides before he can get to the bottom of what turns out to be another Patagonian war story--and maybe get back Myfanwy as well.
—Nicole
