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 ...

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. ( )

Fox Evil is the ninth book by this author, and it won the CWA Gold Dagger award in 2003.

At the root of this mystery is the question of who killed Ailsa Lockyer-Fox. Set in the small village of Shenstead in Dorset, Fox Evil attempts to sort it all out. Ailsa was found by her husband James outside their home in the freezing cold weather, wearing only a nightgown. Obviously, she hadn't intended on staying outside for any length of time. To add to the mystery, bloodstains were also found, but Ailsa had no visible wounds which would have caused them. To further whet the reader's appetite for clues, the door going back into the house was locked, and her husband James, seemingly slept on while the murder and mayhem were occurring. The coroner's report cleared James of any wrongdoing. So who killed Ailsa?

Fox Evil is rather cluttered, suffering from too much going on all at the same time. First, James gets his solicitor to track down his long-lost and grown-up granddaughter, Lizzie's daughter from a fling she had some time back, having been adopted when she was a baby. Then there's a matter of a vicious campaign of anonymous callers, accusing James of horrible things. Not to mention the band of travellers who decide to make a certain stretch of woodland their home and their leader, who goes by the name of Fox. Add into that a mix of neighbors with their own petty problems, and pretty soon you need a scorecard to keep track of it all.

My preference in mystery novels is for a book in which there are enough suspects who all have really good motives to kill someone, a few really good red herrings that might lead me down the wrong path, and a wowser of a revelation at the end. And although I generally like Minette Walters' writing (The Ice House, The Scold's Bridle and The Breaker were absolute gems), there was just way too much happening here. Of course, this book got many 5-star reviews, so it might just be me. I'd recommend it to people who have already read books by this author, but it's definitely not one of my personal favorites. ( )

It was a tricky plot, I got lost a few times but in the end it all came together. I was fascinated by Wolfie he seemed so pathetic. Fox however was not realistic. A bit too dark for my taste but it is unquestionably superb writing. ( )