Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Dolores Gordon-Smith's After the Exhibition, a mystery of art, blackmail, and secrets

Set in England in the mid-1920s, this complicated maze of a mystery is full of promising leads, frustrating dead ends, and puzzles wrapped in puzzles. It has the most eventful plot I’ve seen for a novel of its length. To use a period metaphor, at times it feels like a phonograph record played at double the proper speed.

To her credit, though, the author carefully tracks every little strand of the plot and ties the threads up tidily in the end. After finishing, I skimmed through the novel again, noticing on a second time around how well the clues had been laid.

Keeping true to form for a traditional British mystery, the village of Whimbrell Heath in Surrey is populated by eccentric characters – whose personalities, it must be said, outshine the series detectives. Who are: Major Jack Haldean, a famous crime writer, and his friend Bill Rackham, Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard. They stumble upon odd happenings in London while attending an exhibition of church art, an event one would expect to be rather calm and dull. Not so much.

Employees of Lythewell and Askern, a firm specializing in ecclesiastical artwork and furnishings, have traveled up from Whimbrell Heath to participate. Bill’s an old wartime buddy of Colin Askern, son of one of the owners, while Jack finds himself more intrigued by attractive Betty Wingate, Colin’s friend and Lythewell’s niece.

When a woman selling flags for charity passes out in shock on the street, crying out “Art!”, they help her and write it off as a peculiar event. Then things turn even stranger. The next day, when Betty approaches Bill and Jack, claiming that an Italian lady was murdered in her cottage back home, they’re compelled to investigate. Betty’s upset, since Colin and other villagers dismiss her as hysterical: the body she saw has vanished.

Jack and Bill make a good team, and their easygoing banter livens things up, though more backstory – this is the 8th in the series – would have helped me know them better. But with revelations of blackmail, jealousy, overlarge egos, and rumors of hidden treasure, there was more than enough to hold my attention as one stunning revelation after another came to light.

After the Exhibition was published by Severn House in 2014 ($28.95 hb, $13.99 ebook, 240pp).  Thanks to the publisher for the NetGalley download; I'm slowly working my way through my NetGalley queue!

8 comments:

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    1. I was amazed at the number of twists and turns the plot took. Definitely unpredictable, which is a plus.

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  2. This series sounds like one I would enjoy. Not having heard of this author before I did a search. I love the covers of these books. There's no mistaking in what era they are set! While After the Exhibition has piqued my interest, I'm off to grab a copy of the first in the series A Fete Worse Than Death.

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    1. I'm interested in reading the first book also - I'm curious about the detectives' background and how they first got involved in solving mysteries. Agreed, too, on the period-appropriateness of the cover designs.

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  3. This sounds great. Love your phonograph metaphor!

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    1. Thanks! Interestingly, the author's written another mystery surrounding the invention of a new record player (gramophone). Phonograph is the American term... had to look that up to be sure!

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  4. You've made me want to read this one Sarah. Love your metaphor and also love the cover of the book. Is it atmospheric?

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    1. Yes, it has a definite 1920s vibe. And I like how the story emphasized an aspect of English culture (church art!) I never would have thought about.

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