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188th out of 200 books
—
244 voters
A Piece of Justice (Imogen Quy #2)
The late, great mathematician Gideon Summerfield ought to be a safe subject for a biography, so why has it been so difficult to get the book written?
Imogen's lodger Fran is close to dicovering a secret about Summerfield. She is in danger, and Fran must act before it is too late.
Imogen's lodger Fran is close to dicovering a secret about Summerfield. She is in danger, and Fran must act before it is too late.
Paperback
Published
1995
by Coronet Books
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Originally published on my blog here in November 1998.
A Piece of Justice is the second of Walsh's detective novels to feature Imogen Quy, nurse at St Agatha's, a fictional Cambridge college. As you would expect from a Booker shortlisted author, it is well written, though it doesn't have a particularly difficult puzzle.
Imogen has taken a lodger, a postgraduate student named Fran writing a thesis on the nature of biography. To be able to live while working on this, she asks her supervisor if he h...more
A Piece of Justice is the second of Walsh's detective novels to feature Imogen Quy, nurse at St Agatha's, a fictional Cambridge college. As you would expect from a Booker shortlisted author, it is well written, though it doesn't have a particularly difficult puzzle.
Imogen has taken a lodger, a postgraduate student named Fran writing a thesis on the nature of biography. To be able to live while working on this, she asks her supervisor if he h...more
Picked this up as I recognised the author - she finished the unfinished Peter Wimseys, as started by Dorothy Sayers. Wondered what her own creation would be like. Pretty good, as it turns out. Imogen Quy (rhymes with why) is a matron in a Cambridge college and her lodger takes on the task of finishing a biography of an obscure maths don who produced one outstanding piece of maths and nothing of note before or since. In the notes, she discovers that 3 people hae tried to write the biography befor...more
Some folks like Jill Paton Walsh and some don't. I do. And of all her many books her Imogen Quy (rhymes with Why) series are perhaps my favorites. The first book in the series was The Wyndham Case. This is the second.
Imogen is the school nurse at St Agatha's College, Cambridge. She is friends with the master's wife. And she rents a couple of rooms in her Victorian house to students. This puts her in the center of college doings and she is alarmed when one of her roomers takes over an academic bi...more
Imogen is the school nurse at St Agatha's College, Cambridge. She is friends with the master's wife. And she rents a couple of rooms in her Victorian house to students. This puts her in the center of college doings and she is alarmed when one of her roomers takes over an academic bi...more
A solid comfy mystery - cum- academic novel. Tea and crumpets; the protagonist talking "crisply" and making sure to put the quiche in the oven before returning an important phone call; the lead cop, Mike, always doing things "cheerfully"-- this is more Midsomer Murders than Morse, and that's not necessarily a criticism. My wife couldn't get beyond the description of the quilting party in the first chapter, and I can't blame her, but that turns out not to dominate, and instead to establish the co...more
Read the two Imogen Quy novels (bound into one paperback) while on holiday in Asia. Interesting experience of being in the tropics while reading about English university life (need to check if set in Cambridge or Oxford!). Imogen Quy is an interesting character, may be too much in the tradition of Miss Marple - OK not quite, but be warned . . . everyone's friend, unlucky in love. Fellow reader used word 'twee' (?!) to describe . . . I enjoy it for the 'inside look' into life at Oxbridge and ther...more
Aug 10, 2011
Bev Hankins
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
academic-mystery,
mcpl-book
A Piece of Justice by Jill Paton Walsh is the second of her Imogen Quy (rhymes with "why") mystery series. Imogen is the nurse at Cambridge's imaginary St. Agatha's College. In this particular outing another student may be in danger and this time the student is one of Imogen's boarders and friend, Fran Buillon. Fran, a graduate student in need of money, gratefully undertakes to complete a biography of a mathematician. A seemingly simple task that was begun by three other biographers but never fi...more
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A super cozy mystery, involving quilting, academics, biographers, and revealing discussions that take place in a Senior Common Room, which I always enjoy. Compared with Sayers, of course, the writing is very run-of-the-mill, but for a standard cozy mystery, the prose isn't bad. The detective, who as far as I can tell is something like 34 years old, is characterized somewhat like an elderly maiden aunt, but I'll just imagine her as elderly and keep reading the series.
The second book in the Imogen Quy mysteries, this delightful story is understated and sweet. Antique Road Show fans will appreciate her quilting dicussions in this mystery. I think Paton Walsh did a wonderful job completing Sayers' Lord Peter series. Although these mysteries are set in Cambridge rather than Oxford, the distinctions are lost on me as a savage American. I'm looking forward to completeing this series.
An amateur-detective story...except the main character isn't really trying to be a detective, just kind of stumbles across the solution to a mystery/crime, so I don't know how apt that description is really.
This was an unassuming kind of book. Didn't really strike me as anything super special, but not offensively bad or anything either. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of cozies.
This was an unassuming kind of book. Didn't really strike me as anything super special, but not offensively bad or anything either. I'd definitely recommend it to fans of cozies.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Unexpectedly delightful! I gave the first in the series an okay-ish three stars, but I really enjoyed this one! I think it was mostly that the mystery+mathematics+quilting combination is completely my cup of tea but added to this it was well written, mostly well plotted and had a lot of strong female characters. Will definitely be back for the rest of the series now.
Another mystery set in Cambridge. The protagonist in this one is Imogen Quy, a university part time nurse and a quilter. She becomes friends with Frances Bullion, a student, and gets involved when Frances' biography project runs awry. The whole plot weaves around mathematical discoveries and quilts. A nice cozy read.
This did not inspire the excitement that The Bad Quarto did when I first discovered Imogen Quy, but it was a fair read notwithstanding.
And fine, so Quy rhymes with "why." But should we say "kwy" or "ky"?
And fine, so Quy rhymes with "why." But should we say "kwy" or "ky"?
So many good things here--ideas about biography, politics at Cambridge colleges, women's history, mathematics and quilting, the settings in Cambridge and English countryside, clever plotting, reasonable length. Too much coincidence to be believable and too many plot threads tied up with a bow at the end spoiled a promising beginning .
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This intriguing mystery is pieced together as intricately as one the quilts Imogene Quy describes. It has a nice balance of plot and background history. The characters are all nicely drawn and interesting. It is a keeper.
I took this book to read while travelling and it held my interest. The heroine, Imogen, is a younger version of Miss Marple. Her interest in quilting helps her solve this mystery.
I really love this character and this series. There aren't a lot of mysteries like this nowadays! A delightful combination of modern life and old fashioned British mystery.
Lovely cosy mystery set in Cambridge, after which you will never see quilt-making in the same light again.
Mystery and danger threaten Fran when she takes over the biography of mathematician Gideon Summerfield.
best book set in an English college since Gaudy Night.
Sep 28, 2008
Carolynne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Carolynne by:
Bethany
Shelves:
mysteries
Imogen's friend Fran takes over an uncompleted biography of an obscure Cambridge mathematician, only to discover that those who previously researched his life had either died or disappeared in mysterious circumstances. A beautiful old quilt in a quaint Welsh farmhouse has an unexpected significance to the story. Complex, literate mystery. I am anxious to read more about Imogen Quy--I've always liked Paton Walsh's books (_Fireweed_, _The Green Book_, _Goldengrove_ and _Unleaving_)
but her mysterie...more
but her mysterie...more
One reader called this book "complex and literate" and another called it "dull and bookish." I found it both and finally gave up on it...but only after reading the last chapter...
Disappointing! I expected more from this novel, as I had read Knowledge Of Angels by Paton Walsh many years ago.
This sold itself as a kind of Morse-esque detective novel - set in a university town, I thought it would be erudite and clever. Instead, it was dull and bookish.
Read Knowledge Of Angels if you want to enjoy Paton Walsh's writing. Steer clear of anything that mentions Imogen Quy
This sold itself as a kind of Morse-esque detective novel - set in a university town, I thought it would be erudite and clever. Instead, it was dull and bookish.
Read Knowledge Of Angels if you want to enjoy Paton Walsh's writing. Steer clear of anything that mentions Imogen Quy
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Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.
Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The...more
More about Jill Paton Walsh...
Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The...more
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