Andrew Taylor

IN A NUTSHELL
The premise for this book hooked my imagination. The novel itself sent my imagination to sleep.

A novel offering me a ghost story wrapped around a murder mystery with Dark Academia undertones in a 1940s England historical setting, how could I not enjoy that?

The answer turned out to be: when the pace is slow and the tension so absent that you lose interest.
I set this aside at 26% even though the writing and the narration were both good, because the story wasn't working for me. show more

The main character was hard to like and was, by necessity, passive (being dead will do that to you). There was no tension and not much by way of pathos or passion. There was a strong sense of how dreary, grubby, small-minded and soul-destroying the school was, but that wasn't enough to keep me engaged. In the absence of other things, it just made the reading experience depressing. show less

Subtitled: "Three tales of fear, retribution and death". The first, "Broken Voices", is set a few years before WWI. Two neglected boarding school boys who have nowhere to go are left in the care of an elderly retired teacher over the Christmas holiday. Narrated by the older boy, he tells the story of their isolation and the younger boy's desperate need to go looking around the school's cathedral in the middle of the night.
The second story is narrated by a man on the day of his sister's show more funeral. The siblings had been unable to get along throughout their lives, and the fact that his sister hated him even as she was dying weighs heavy on the man's mind, playing a part in his getting lost between the funeral and his hotel. Driving for hours in the rain, he has a flat tire on a backroad along the coast. He walks toward the only light he sees, and arrives at a cottage among the ruins, with the woman there making it clear she doesn't want to be bothered.
The last story is narrated by Clare. She and her husband Gerald have a nice life in the Forest of Dean. Their children are grown and on their own and Clare enjoys working in her art studio. After little communication over the years, Gerald's young nephew calls to ask if he can stay with them for a while, as he's been discharged from the army for an unspecified nervous condition, and with both his parents dead, he has nowhere else.
Taylor is an author I'll seek out more from. His stories are truly Gothic, walking a line of apprehension that the reader worries will tip into horror. His characters are often alone and grieving in their loneliness, there's rain or snow, darkness- in other words, the perfect Gothic settings. show less

As the war ends, Monkshill Park is facing an uncertain future. One of the teachers at this 'fourth-rate' girls' boarding school has disappeared, only she hasn't, she's been murdered and now her spirit is unable to rest until she finds out what has happened. Annabel was a good teacher but had left her previous job under a cloud however, at Monkshill Park she thought she'd found love and a purpose until she was killed. As secrets come to light, Annabel tries to solve her own murder.
Writing a show more precise of the plot of this book makes it sound completely ridiculous, a mash-up between a ghost story and a 'Golden-Age' murder mystery. However ,in the hands of Taylor it becomes a thing of wonder. The ghost element is just a clever vehicle for the sleuthing and the characters are diverse and complex in their motives. It's sad, intriguing and beautifully put together. show less

I've seen the odd ghost-investigates-their-own-murder here and there and it's usually quirky or cosy or unashamedly gimmicky, but this one has more of a hard edge to it, as you might expect from Taylor. A techer has gone missing from a remote 4th-rate girls' school in post-war England, except she's still there, haunting the scene of her last few months of life, trying to gather up the clues by spying on the staff and students, discovering their secrets, even as they uncover some of hers. show more It's very good, has real complicated emotional depth, and never feels remotely quirky or cosy. show less