Although Fox Evil is only second book I've read by Minette Walters, she is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors and there is already a few more of her books waiting on my bookshelf.The thing I have loved about this book is quite simply pretty much everything. One, the story itself. It's running smoothly, it's captivating, it makes you want to keep reading because you want to know what happens next and somehow you're pretty sure that whatever your guess is, it won't be that. That is my second point. Expect the unexpected. That goes for characters as well as individual events as well as the whole story as such. Three, and that is a big big plus point for me, are the details. Little things, that may not even turn out to play any important role in the big picture, but are still mentioned and add to the complexity of the characters or events, make it all feel very real.On that note, fourth star is for characters, their variety, their depth, the care with which they seem to have been created. The way you learn about their values and characteristics from their actions, rather than from long paragraphs describing every trait of their personality. Finally, a bonus point for a little part of the book that made me stop for a bit and think about the issue in terms of the real world: the page or two, where Prue Weldon slowly starts to see all her actions in a new perspective. These few paragraphs are not the most crucial point of the book, but in my eyes, they were absolutely brilliantly written. It made me stop and think of how much we rely on our surroundings, how much we have to rely on trusting someone or something else, how easy it is to choose the wrong someone or something without sometimes even realizing there had ever been any choice at all. I cannot put my finger on what exactly was it about this bit that overwhelmed me, but something did, and that, perhaps sadly, does not happen very often. Big thumbs up for that.So, to conclude, would I recommend this book? Absolutely. Reading it was time well spent, this is, in just about every way, an outstanding book in its genre.
When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A Coroner's inquest gives a verdict of 'natural causes' but the gossip surrounding James refuses to go away. Why? Because he's guilty? Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset village where he lives rules the roost? Shenstead is a place of too few people and too many secrets. Why have James and Ailsa cut their children out of their will? What happened in the past to create such animosity within the family? Any why is James so desperate to find his illegitimate grandchild? Friendless and alone, his reclusive behavior begins to alarms his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose concern deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge....Why? Because they're a motive for murder....?
What do You think about Fox Evil (2006)?
Do you ever get a real feeling of utter satisfaction when you finish a book? You find yourself savoring the book, not wanting it to end and planning the reading of the last page in a special place, like an outdoor swing or a favorite chair. Well this book I am about to recommend gave me such an experience. It was a great mystery set in rural England in the 2000s with the proverbial twists and turns that held my ADD in check for long stretches of time. I may be late to the game, this may be a book that most of you have read, or at least you may have read other books by this author. At any rate,I loved it and hope you get same reader high that I got. The book: Fox Evil by Minnette Walters.
—Bonnie Hill
It took me quite some time to get into the story. The first 100 pages were hard 'cause they confused me a bit. Too many story-strings woven together. In general, I have nothing against multiple strings in a story, quite the opposite.Secondly the story went on very slow. Too many reduntant pages for my liking.More details, more information and more twists kept coming. Not all of them were necessary but just kept adding to the confusion. But after a while you were at least interested in the outcome and so I hung in there and kept reading.All in all it was a nice plot, I just think Walters could have written it better. This was my first book by her, I do have several others already (since she was always recommeded to me) and I'll see how her other thrillers are.
—Karschtl
• FOX EVIL by Minette Walters, Macmillan415 pps. 32 chaps. 135,000 words.Written from multi-viewpoint (Some God’s Eye view) using narrative with some reports from TV, papers and internet and some letters. Centres on the relationship between an adopted woman and her real grandfather with her relationship with the grandfather’s lawyer as the love interest. The many characters are individuals and are well drawn, credible but interesting. The crimes are, of course, murders, including the killing of
—Stuart Aken
