Lynton Lamb (1907–1977)

I am always interested in the phenomenon of mystery stories authored by people who normally write in other, more serious genres, or are not otherwise writers at all, but civil servants or engineers. Lamb was a visual artist, and judging by the apparently small number of LT members who have read his mysteries it was good he did not quit his day job. But I found this book, his first attempt, quite enjoyable. The local village dialect was challenging, the cricket match incomprehensible to me. show more Fortunately I have a slight familiarity with change-ringing. But the writing was excellent and the characters, representing the full spectrum of local village life, well-drawn. Quite Trollopian. Plot was secondary. But am looking forward to tracking down the other three novels in the series. show less

This was a cute story about a young boy, his talking cat and other talking animals in his neighbourhood. I enjoyed it, and I think it would probably be quite enchanting. But the audiobook narration was a little unclear and I think I missed some of the text and some word play. There was also one or two racist comments, although I can’t be sure on the second comment because of the clarity of the narration.