Flight of a Witch

Not a great story. It's Ellis Peters, of course it's well-written with complex characters and a serious puzzle. But the major character is so... Self-contained? Inward-looking? that she makes no sense to me. Every male around her falls in love with her, and she doesn't respond at all... Except to one, and he's utterly wrong on so many levels. But for him she's got all the passion she doesn't give anyone else... Why? Why him? No idea. Which makes motives feel very random and author fiat, since I can't see how her behavior could arise from any reasonable characteristics. And I wish someone had gone the other way on the clue about her father - what if it was? What if Beck was right, and she'd found out somehow, and who? I think that would show more have been a more interesting story, actually - except it doesn't allow for the crime. I don't know. Probably my least favorite Felse story. Still not bad, though. show less

This one took a little while for me to get into because it sort of sidles up to the mystery and is mostly written from the perspective of a young teacher, Tom, and it takes a while to figure out where the book is going. Once it gets there, I was pretty engrossed in the mystery, although I was a bit disappointed with the way the author passes judgement on the young girl, Annet. This book was written in the 1960s and I suppose the author could have been putting words in Tom's head, but it sounded like it was coming from outside the book and to a modern reader it just sounds so, so wrong. I'll put the quote in spoiler tags because it does give away a key point in the mystery.

The author lays the blame on the affair entirely on the young show more girl:

She wasn’t his victim; he was hers. She had destroyed him by loving him. If she’d never even noticed him, except as a middle-aged man, a father figure, he’d have mastered his feelings for her. But she’d opened to him, she’d loved him, he’d been forced to turn longing and dream into action. No, Annet was nobody’s victim, she had done what she had chosen to do, taken him because he was the weakest, the most helpless, the least effective, the unhappiest of all the men it might have been.

Squick. The girl was maybe 17 when they started their affair.

Edith Pargeter manages to fit in a bit of matchmaking like in the Cadfael books but things are much more nebulous here. show less

This is one of Ms. Peters' modern-day mysteries, involving the disappearance of the beautiful young Annet Beck on the mysterious Hallowmount (based, I suspect, on the Stiperstones). When she reappears after five days, she insists that she's only been gone for a couple of hours. Both George and Dominic Felse (at this stage still in the sixth form) feature, together with the impressionable young teacher Tom Kenyon. It transpires that Annet has accidentally become involved with a rather sordid murder, but she continues to refuse to speak. There's a rather implausibly melodramatic conclusion (back on the Hallowmount). Not one of her best, in my view, but still worth reading once.

Best known for her "Brother Cadfael" series, which are among my favourite historical detective series, Ellis Peters (1913-1985) was also the author of thirteen novels featuring Inspector George Felse. Published in 1964, FLIGHT OF A WITCH is the fifth novel in that series.

Annet Beck is a small town girl with unexpected beauty - and when school teacher Tom Kenyon takes a room in her parents' home he hopes she will be drawn to his manly charms. To his dismay, Annet is not interested; to his shock, she suddenly disappears on a hill of ancient ill-repute named Hallowmount. And to every one's surprise, when she returns five days later, she claims to have been gone only a few hours. Is it witchcraft? Or has Annet fallen back on local legends show more in an effort to conceal her activities? Fortunately, Inspector Felse is on the scene to separate fact from fiction.

Peters often worked with contrived plots, and in her hands they are often quite amusing. The plot of FLIGHT OF A WITCH is in some ways typical of her work. However, those expecting a mystery will be disappointed, for the novel is less mysterious than merely so much pulp romance and, while there is a murder to be solved, it is less a matter of detection than in forcing the truth from the mysterious central character.

Although it has its moments, this is very much one of Peters' lesser works. The context is dated; the characters largely ill-defined or unbelievable; and the plot is trite. show less

I liked it. Ellis Peters seemed to be fantasizing a bit about what it's like to have looks that have all the men falling in love with you. Annet doesn't fit any pretty girl stereotype.

Fairly good book. Of course, the time frame is very out dated but it is interesting the way the characters are developed. It had me guessing who really was the murderer.

A mystery in modern day (1964) Wales by the author of the Brother Cadfael series, this story is part village mystery and part police procedural. An easy read, and a reasonably disguised villain.