En el bello paisaje de la campiña inglesa, una adinerada familia debe enfrentarse a un destino que parece condenarla a la extinción. El viejo coronel Lockyer-Fox ha perdido a su mujer, mientras sus hijos, Leo, un ludópata redomado, y Elizabeth, una pomiscua alcohólica condenada al fracaso, apenas son una mácula dentro de la genealogía familiar.
Deprimido y con el único apoyo de su fiel abogado Mark Ankerton, Lockyer-Fox también debe hacer frente a las habladurías de sus convecinos, que le acusan del supuesto asesinato de su esposa. Se avecinan tiempos difíciles para el coronel quien, además, ha decidido destapar un viejo secreto y encomendar a Mark la tarea de encontrar a una nieta entregada en adopción apenas nacer. Una lejana vergüenza que la familia Lockyer-Fox ocultó a cal y canto, para proteger la ya maltrecha reputación de Elizabeth.
En tanto, en las tierras que lindan con la propiedad del coronel se instala un grupo de nómadas con el objetivo de asentarse por un tiempo indefinido. A la cabeza del movimiento se encuentra un siniestro personaje a quien todos conocen como Fox Evil, un individuo capaz de hundir aún más si cabe los ánimos del coronel. Sólo la providencial visita de su nieta, convertida por los avatares de la vida en una joven capitana del ejército inglés, le ayudará a encarar el avispero emocional en el que vive su agotado corazón.

It's been a long while since I read one of Minette Walteres's page-turners. Although convincing, this one is a bit long with a few twists that seem superficial. Ultimately satisfying, a pleasure to read. ( )

Shenstead, ein kleines Dorf in England unweit der malerischen Küste von Dorset: Hier residiert der alte Colonel James Lockyer-Fox gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Ailsa in einem stattlichen Herrenhaus, das seit Generationen im Besitz der angesehenen Familie ist. An einem kalten Wintermorgen wird die ländliche Idylle jedoch jäh erschüttert - denn James entdeckt Ailsa tot auf der Terrasse ihres Anwesens. Sie ist nur mit einem Nachthemd bekleidet, und in ihrer unmittelbaren Nähe finden sich Blutspuren auf dem Boden. Von diesem Tag an kommen die bösen Zungen nicht zur Ruhe, die den Colonel des Mordes an seiner Frau bezichtigen. Doch James Lockyer-Fox schweigt beharrlich - keinen einzigen Versuch unternimmt er, dem Spuk ein Ende zu bereiten. Hat er doch etwas zu verbergen?
Als Mark Ankerton, Anwalt und Freund der Familie, nach Dorset reist, um James Lockyer-Fox zur Seite zu stehen, stellt er bald fest, dass sich hinter der pittoresken Fassade von Shenstead ein wahrer Hexenkessel verbirgt ...

Es geht vordergründig darum, ob die Ehefrau des greisen Großgrundbesitzers James Lockyer Fox direkt vor der Terrassentür ermordet wurde - oder ob sie dort draußen infolge eines Unfalls erfror ohne dass eine Fremdeinwirkung stattfand.
Eigentlich aber geht es darum, ob James es schafft, seine Enkeltochter Nancy, die vor 28 Jahren direkt nach der Geburt zur Adoption freigegeben wurde, zurück zugewinnen, herauszufinden, ob seine Kinder (ein Sohn, ein offensichtlicher Schwerenöter und Spieler) und die Tochter (alkoholkrank) doch etwas taugen, und ob Wolfie, der mit seiner drogensüchtigen Mutter, seinem kleinen Bruder und seinem (vielleicht)Vater Evil Fox mit einem Trupp "New Ager" herumreist, es schafft, nette Adoptiveltern zu bekommen.
Und ja, ob Mark, der nette, junge Anwalt von James es schafft, Nancy zu erobern.
Und es geht um die Nachbarn von James, die alle viel weniger nett sind, als sie einen glauben lassen wollen.

Das Buch fängt zügig an, die Personen werden in Szenen, die sie charakterisieren vorgestellt. Nach einem kurzen Vorspiel, in dem wir Mark dabei begleiten, wie er daran scheitert Nancy zu einem Kontakt mit ihrem Großvater zu überreden, entfaltet sich die Handlung, die letztendlich nur wenige Tage umfasst, schnell: An Heiligabend kommt Mark zu James, damit der alte Mann Weihnachten nicht alleine verbringen muss; Nancy, die erst jeden Kontakt zu ihrer "richtigen" Familie abgelehnt hat, kommt "zufällig" vorbei, weil sie in der Gegend ist; und die New Ager um Wolfie und Fox Evil besetzen ein Stück Land in der direkten Nachbarschaft von James.

Von den Hauptpersonen überzeugen Nancy, Wolfie und Fox.
Fox ist wirklich böse, wir wissen von Anfang an, dass er ein Schwein ist, und wir sind uns auch schnell sicher, dass er Wolfies Mutter und Bruder auf dem Gewissen hat. Es bleibt die Vermutung (wenn nicht Gewissheit), dass dieser Mann einen Schaden hat, so dass seine Handlungen von dem Zwang vernünftig zu sein befreit, durchaus spannend zu verfolgen sind.

Wolfie als Kind, das in einer von Angst und dummen Geschichten der Mutter geprägten Welt lebt, und dennoch nicht völlig abgestumpft ist, gewinnt unser Mitgefühl und ist durchaus in der Lage, eine wichtige Rolle zu spielen.

Nancy als Einsatz erprobte Soldatin mit klarem Blick und Verstand, absoluten Desinteresse an einer nicht unbeträchtlichen Erbschaft ist eine interessante Figur, die sich wohltuend von stereotypen Frauenfiguren abhebt.
Mit ist völlig unverständlich, warum Walters sich gegen Ende entschließt, Nancy in einer Stresssituation mehr oder weniger zusammenklappen zu lassen, so dass sie in Panik verfällt und fast handlungsunfähig wird und ohne Hilfe nicht bestehen kann.

Das ist für mich der Wermutstropfen gewesen bei einem Buch, dass mir ansonsten gut gefallen hat, und sogar ein wunderbar kitschiges Happy End hat, also eigentlich wie für mich gemacht ist. ( )

I like Minette Walters for many reasons but an important one is that she begins afresh each time – she does not do sequels. I respect her ability to take a new setting, new characters and a new storyline and create an engrossing tale each time. I appreciate not getting involved in love lives of miserable detectives / forensic pathologists etc. I also appreciate not having to worry that, having plunged into a series on book five, I might have missed important background knowledge. Other people evidently like her work too as she has several awards to her credit. However, I hadn’t read anything by her since ‘The Shape of Snakes’ (published many years back) and approached this with some trepidation, wondering if I was about to change my opinion of a favoured writer.

The premise

Ailsa Lockyer Fox is found dead in her garden, in her nightdress, apparently frozen to death mere steps from her own patio doors. Local rumour condemns her husband, James, as a cruel murderer, despite the conclusion by the coroner that it was accidental. His own children seem ready to accuse him and he is equally ready to suspect them. Oddly, and increasingly worryingly his lawyer, James is doing nothing to rebut the rumours. Could he be hiding a secret?

Meanwhile, a group of travellers led by a man calling himself Fox Evil descend upon James’ village in Shenstead, Dorset. They claim to want a place to settle down, but seem to know rather more about the village than one would expect.

Rousing himself from his stupor, James sends a letter via his lawyer, Mark, to his illegitimate granddaughter, Nancy. Gradually, she is drawn into a complex mesh of rumour, reality and danger surrounding the central mystery of the book: who locked Ailsa outside and left her to die?

My thoughts

As always, Walters creates a complex environment and there are a variety of characters to meet before the story can begin to develop. This naturally enforces a slow pace into what is already a fairly ‘cold’ crime – there is no dramatic discovery of a body or intense police investigation of the death. The event is revealed to us in a brief newspaper article and has already been dismissed by the police as an unusual accident. This is typical of Walters’ writing in that the reader is drawn in through the skilful creation of well-rounded characters and a slight mystery rather than by an intense desire to solve a who or how-dunnit. It does mean that readers need to be patient and give the story a chance to develop. This isn’t a high octane crime thriller but is more of a dark exploration of real motives and domestic lives. However, there are still subtle interests and fears that nag you into reading on.

In the first chapters a lot of characters are introduced quickly and the reader gains a gradual picture of them as the story develops. It is clear early on that Fox is indeed evil and the reader quickly comes to fear for young Wolfie, who sees Fox as his father, and a very dangerous one at that. Wolfie’s vulnerability made him a very sympathetic character and I found myself wanting to find out what would happen to him. In some respects, he is more of a ‘draw’ than James, whose self seclusion and refusal to rebut rumours initially clock his own vulnerability. Indeed, he seems to be the most logical suspect. When Fox appears in the story for a second time, Wolfie’s mother has vanished. This is terrifying for Wolfie and preys on the reader’s mind throughout the rest of the story. Unlikely as it was, I hoped for a happy ending for her.

I found other characters equally appealing. Nancy is a soldier who refuses to fit the ‘helpless female’ role so often meted out to women in crime fiction. Her interactions with the lawyer, Mark, are convincing and entertaining. She is intelligent and perceptive and I found myself liking her. Similarly, the local police officers are insightful and make connections effectively between events and people, leading to some interesting twists towards the end. I liked this as I think there is a tendency in novels that don’t feature a particular police man / force / similar legal force to depict the police as rather hopeless and inadequate. Although Walters depicts homes as vulnerable and communities peopled by rather dangerous folk, it is reassuring to know that the police are doing a good job!

Walters continues to shift the focus of the third person throughout to present a variety of characters and events. Gradually, the likely conclusion coalesces and the inevitable climax arrives with some bloodshed. Ultimately I felt that the ending was rather disappointing. I felt the perpetrator’s motives to be insufficient to justify their actions and that the whole ‘building’ of the plot was therefore rather shaky. That said, I appreciated the thoroughness of the concluding chapters. Walters used a newspaper report to fill in relevant background information and there is also a highly entertaining solictor’s letter. Finally, there is a kind of epilogue which helps to suggest how the characters will move on from the central events. I do like stories which are neatly ‘tied up’ at the end. One ‘loose thread’ is deliberately left and it isn’t as simple as happy endings all round which helped make the ending seem realistic.

Conclusions

The focus throughout is on people, feelings and motives which I found interesting. Fans of police procedurals or crime thrillers should look elsewhere. The novel feels ‘slow’ throughout but is quietly compelling. The writing is solid and convincing; there are no jerky cliff-hangers or clunky clichés. There are a variety of interesting and rounded characters although the focus is predominantly on middle class characters who consider themselves to be upper-middle. Some of the most entertaining dialogue takes place between the most snobbish characters whose flaws are mercilessly exposed by Walters. This feels like a very domestic drama and the supposedly central murder becomes almost tangential by the end. Despite the ‘tidiness’ of the ending, it is a bit disappointing: the villain seems to lack sufficient motivation and there is a lot of unpicking of plotlines to do which seem to result in a lot of writing but not much happening. I don’t feel that this is as engaging as Walters’ earlier novels and I think I shall reread those before looking to read any of her more recent work. However, that said, this is a very well written story of domestic disharmony and the potentially poisonous nature of gossipy village life. Recommended. ( )