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Superintendent Ditteridge #3
Foot in the Grave
Mysterious events began when Christine Findon went upstairs after breakfast and met a strange man coming downstairs. Shoes disappear and as the story unfolds Christine suspects one of the occupants of her house harbours a sinister fetish for footware ... but she doesn't suspect one of them is about to commit murder.
- GenresMystery
190 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
About the author
Elizabeth Ferrars
92 books28 followersAka E.X. Ferrars.
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 2, 2020
Christine Findon likes her quiet little home life with her husband Henry. She's not much of a people person and definitely doesn't like them in large quantities. So, when she finds herself with a houseful of people one weekend, she already feels out of sorts. Like maybe she was suffering from an overdose of the human race. In a very short time period, her house had filled up with one cook/housekeeper that she really didn't need; her rather precocious young nephew and niece; their au pair; the prodigal son of the cook/housekeeper; her brother-in-law; and one of Christine's oldest friends who is visiting in order to give a talk on antique shoes.
Things definitely start out weird when Christine goes upstairs after breakfast and meets a strange man coming downstairs.
As she went, she wondered if she might be going mad. She could usually recognize the people whom she met in her own home, or at least account for their presence there.
Of course, the man winds up being the prodigal son of their prodigal cook/housekeeper. Mrs. Heacham had originally been the cook/housekeeper for Christine's father when he was alive. When the Christine's father died, Mrs. Heacham had gone to Canada for several years and had just recently come back to England. Somehow it was assumed that she would just take up where she left off and work for Christine. Next, Vivienne, Christine's friend, arrives and her wearable shoes disappear. Well...not all of them. Just the left shoe from each pair. Anybody in the house could have taken the shoes, but why would they?
The next morning Christine finds the missing shoes burned and destroyed in the remains of a bonfire (made from leaves the housekeeper's prodigal son Lew had thoughtfully swept up for them). But that isn't the worst thing found destroyed that morning...the body of Mrs. Heacham is found stuffed in a trunk in the storeroom and now they not only have a thief but a murderer amongst them.
The best thing about this one is the characters. Ferrars gives us fully realized, well-drawn characters and fills the house with them (literally). Their interactions with one another make for interesting reading. What keeps this from being a first-rate mystery is the plot itself. I'm just not sold on the motive that results in murder--I might have been if there had been any indications of it. But there weren't. It just pops up at the end. Others on Goodreads give the mystery high marks indeed, so your mileage may vary. ★★★--just.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review.
Things definitely start out weird when Christine goes upstairs after breakfast and meets a strange man coming downstairs.
As she went, she wondered if she might be going mad. She could usually recognize the people whom she met in her own home, or at least account for their presence there.
Of course, the man winds up being the prodigal son of their prodigal cook/housekeeper. Mrs. Heacham had originally been the cook/housekeeper for Christine's father when he was alive. When the Christine's father died, Mrs. Heacham had gone to Canada for several years and had just recently come back to England. Somehow it was assumed that she would just take up where she left off and work for Christine. Next, Vivienne, Christine's friend, arrives and her wearable shoes disappear. Well...not all of them. Just the left shoe from each pair. Anybody in the house could have taken the shoes, but why would they?
The next morning Christine finds the missing shoes burned and destroyed in the remains of a bonfire (made from leaves the housekeeper's prodigal son Lew had thoughtfully swept up for them). But that isn't the worst thing found destroyed that morning...the body of Mrs. Heacham is found stuffed in a trunk in the storeroom and now they not only have a thief but a murderer amongst them.
The best thing about this one is the characters. Ferrars gives us fully realized, well-drawn characters and fills the house with them (literally). Their interactions with one another make for interesting reading. What keeps this from being a first-rate mystery is the plot itself. I'm just not sold on the motive that results in murder--I might have been if there had been any indications of it. But there weren't. It just pops up at the end. Others on Goodreads give the mystery high marks indeed, so your mileage may vary. ★★★--just.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review.
March 27, 2020
This excellent novel of the 1970s read very much like a mystery from the Golden Age occurring between the two world wars. I always enjoy a mystery within a larger mystery, in this case being why a woman’s four left shoes should go missing. The author provides wonderful character development and intriguing subplots leading to a satisfying conclusion. My only quibble was the motive seemed a little lightweight for murder, but Inspector Ditteridge explains the circumstances fully to readers’ satisfaction in the end. My first taste of E.X. Ferrars’ work, but not the last.
October 8, 2018
Christine and Henry Findon rather like living along in their spacious house. But things have changed. The housekeeper who worked for years for Henry's father has come out of retirement and works for them, and her scapegrace son is visiting. They're hosting Christine's nephew and niece, and a charming au pair to help care for them. Christine's old friend Vivien has come to give a talk to the costume society. And Henry's rich, successful brother drops in to spend the night. The first strange thing to happen is the theft of all of Vivien's left shoes. And then they slowly realize that one of the group may well be a murderer...
I never know whether to mention this kind of thing, but there is one, totally peripheral and unnecessary use of a word that has become taboo. Really, it's used in a descriptive phrase that could be taken out of the book without anyone even noticing. But it is there, and if you're sensitive, you might want to avoid the book on that account.
I never know whether to mention this kind of thing, but there is one, totally peripheral and unnecessary use of a word that has become taboo. Really, it's used in a descriptive phrase that could be taken out of the book without anyone even noticing. But it is there, and if you're sensitive, you might want to avoid the book on that account.
March 17, 2017
This is a quintessential British whodunit. Well-written, a houseful of interesting characters as suspects, an abundance of clues, and a satisfying surprise ending. I'm going to be on the lookout for more Elizabeth Ferrars books in thrift shops and used book stores.
November 3, 2023
I'd give this four stars as an ordinary novel, but it only rates three stars due to the thinness of the plot.
Ferrars is brilliant at at producing well-rounded and believable characters that the reader cares about. I felt a real sympathy for Christine, who 'needs hours and hours of solitude, almost daily, to remain what she was accustomed to thinking of as normal'. When she meets a perfectly strange young man coming down the stairs of her own home who greets her by name, she wonders 'if she might be going mad. She could usually recognise the people whom she met in her own home, or at least account for their presence there.' I also liked the laid-back reactions of her husband, Henry, who maintains the strange young man can't be a burglar because it's 'the wrong time of day'!
The novel skilfully builds up the growing sense of unease at various odd incidents, including the mysterious theft of all the left shoes belonging to one guest, before one of the household is murdered. The investigation was competently handled, and while I disagree that the motive for the murder was inadequate (murders can be committed for the most trivial of reasons and in this case ) I do agree that the motivation for events leading up to the murder was poor. I also felt that the moment when one character solves the mystery was totally unrealistic.
Ferrars is brilliant at at producing well-rounded and believable characters that the reader cares about. I felt a real sympathy for Christine, who 'needs hours and hours of solitude, almost daily, to remain what she was accustomed to thinking of as normal'. When she meets a perfectly strange young man coming down the stairs of her own home who greets her by name, she wonders 'if she might be going mad. She could usually recognise the people whom she met in her own home, or at least account for their presence there.' I also liked the laid-back reactions of her husband, Henry, who maintains the strange young man can't be a burglar because it's 'the wrong time of day'!
The novel skilfully builds up the growing sense of unease at various odd incidents, including the mysterious theft of all the left shoes belonging to one guest, before one of the household is murdered. The investigation was competently handled, and while I disagree that the motive for the murder was inadequate (murders can be committed for the most trivial of reasons and in this case ) I do agree that the motivation for events leading up to the murder was poor. I also felt that the moment when one character solves the mystery was totally unrealistic.
June 26, 2026
Nice British cozy. Point of view is that of a woman whose retirement has brought on an unexpectedly filled house. and she doesn't really care for people.
Ending seems thrown together, but the rest of the investigation is enjoyable.
Ending seems thrown together, but the rest of the investigation is enjoyable.
March 5, 2009
I think that this is my first Elizabeth Ferrars book and I really liked it a lot. I'll have to find more of her mysteries.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews