Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Shroud of Canvas

Isobel Mary Lambot (1926-2001) was from a family of readers in
Birmingham, England, but she didn't turn to writing until 1960. She
served first in the Women's Royal Air Force then as a teacher before
marrying in 1959 a Belgian engineer whose work took him to Third World
countries. That was the launching point for Lambot's travels around the
world, experiences that would later turn up in her writing—including her
Russian-exile Commissaire Orloff who appeared in two novels and was
inspired from a period spent in France. In fact, Lambot's very first
crime novel was written in Jamaica, and although never published, it
connected her with her literary agent.

In all, she published some
20 crime novels, including police procedurals, political thrillers and
standalone detective stories based in such locations as Ceylon and the
Congo, translated into German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish under the
Lambot name or the pseudonyms Daniel Ingham and Mary Turner. She also
had a nonfiction book, How to Write Crime Novels, published in 1992, taught creative writing, lectured to writers' groups and presented "Whodunit" evenings.

She
was definitely of her time and the social mores of the day, once
saying, "My aim is to entertain, not to preach, but certain moral values
underlie my work all the same. I prefer old-fashioned virtues, such as
Crime Does Not Pay, while obviously in real life it does! I don't like
the permissive society, and make sure my heroines get decently married
at the end. If any of my characters leap into bed with each other, it is
essential to the plot, and they usually regret it." But she also
understood the writing process well, adding that "People write because
they want to. It is an inner compulsion. Crime writers write to
entertain, to give a little relaxation in a world of stress. It is very
hard work." 

Sadly, late in life as a widow she had rapid onset
of Alzheimer's disease and after being moved to a nursing home, left one
day and was last seen walking into the countryside. As a family member
noted, the author's final mystery was like her novels, as a massive
search operation was set up with police and volunteers until her body
was found against a tree in Yeld Wood. But she probably would have
appreciated the funeral—as the hearse drove from the Church in Kington
to the Crematorium in Hereford, a lone buzzard flew over the coffin and
screeched.


Her novels, such as the 1967 Shroud of Canvas,
use a plain straighforward style to good effect, weaving character
sketches and interpersonal relationships to help build suspense. The
main POV protagonist in "Canvas"  is Rosalind, a young widow with a
daughter, who had cut all ties with her family during her first
disastrous marriage and has recently married a man she's only known for
six months, Geoffrey Lennard, founder of a plastics company.

When
Rosalind receives a telephone call from Geoffrey's former fiancée whom
Rosalind knew nothing about, it sets in motion a series of mysteries and
deaths beginning with the murder of the ex-fiancée in the Lennard
garden. As evidence and suspicion begins to mount against Geoffrey,
Rosalind's newfound happiness is in jeopardy even as she unwaveringly
believes in the innocence of her husband. With the help of a surprising
ally, Detective Sergeant Barry Thornley, and his boss, Superintendent
Longton, Rosaline pursues the truth, dodging the whispers and doubts
from the local community admidst a backdrop of industrial espionage and
power struggles.

And yet...Rosalind does wonder, as this excerpt
indicates, although it also shows Lambot's effective sparse style and
how she creates conflict:

There was a nightmare
sense of repetition. Was she doomed to sit at the breakfast table each
morning waiting for an explanation that never came?...She had wandered
round the silent house all evening, waiting for the sound of Geoffrey's
car, wishing one moment that Sally was not away for the night, glad at
another that she was not there to witness her mother's anxiety.

One
in desperation, she had phoned the office but there was no reply. Not
that it meant anything. Geoffrey could have told the switchboard not to
leave him connected with an outside line, so that he could get on with
his work in peace...

But the previous evening he had gone to meet Anne...

Shroud of Canvas may
date from the late 60s, but it follows true British Golden Age
tradition, filled with skillfully placed clues and red herrings alike
and ending with a closed circle of suspects gathered together to hear
the revelation of the murderer's identity.


In light of Lambot's tragic battle with Alzheimers, I think it's appropriate to remind folks that author Tess Gerritsen's fundraiser to Alzheimer's research is just shy of $6,000 in reaching its goal. For every $5 you donate to her GoFundMe campaign,
you'll be entered into a drawing to have a chance to name a character
in the next Rizzoli & Isles book or other prizes.