Ten Lords A-Leaping

Robert Amiss #6

by Ruth Dudley Edwards

Lady Troutbeck, Mistress of St Martha's College, throws herself into the serious work of the House. When ten lords have simultaneous heart attacks, Troutbeck finds herself helping the police with their enquiries.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

After being a Cambridge postgraduate, a teacher, a marketing executive and a civil servant, Ruth Dudley Edwards became a full-time writer. A journalist, broadcaster, historian and prize-winning biographer who lives in London, her recent non-fiction includes books about The Economist, the Foreign Office, the Orange Order and Fleet Street. The first of her ten satirical mysteries, Corridors of Death, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger; two others were nominated for the CWA Last Laugh Award. Her two short stories appeared respectively in The Economist and the Oxford Book of Detective Stories.

Series:
* Robert Amiss Mystery

Reviews

[Susan]

I am basically a pc person myself, but I get a kick from "Jack" Troutbeck's outrageous assaults on political correctness. She's a female "Andy" Dalziel. There are some bizarre murders here, an awful cat, the House of Lords, and some gender confusion and obfuscation.

[R.L.]

Robert Amis has followed his old friend, Jack, into the House of Lords where she is admitted. Then come the murders. There is a total uprising about fox hunting. It is fair to say not a lot has changed. Anyway, Robert must find out who the murderer is before his friend Jack becomes a victim.

[J Grimsey]

Usual light amusing murder book from Ruth Dudley Edwards. More people killed than usual but lots of sniping at the English Establishment both right and left. Bye the bye Plutarch was in fine form

[Cindy]

I sort of enjoyed this British mystery, which centers largely around Parliament's House of Lords. That was interesting, since I know nothing at all about how it works or what they do there. The plot was pretty good too, although the ending didn't really wrap everything up the way I expected and there was no real climax to speak of.

My main complaint was the characters. I didn't really like anyone in the book, except perhaps for the policeman assigned to solve the case. The book centers around a woman, "Jack" Troutbeck, who is elevated to a peeress. She immediately jumps into controversy by supporting the traditional English hunt, which animal rights activists are trying to outlaw. She ropes in a reluctant friend to help on her campaign, Robert Amiss. Although he's out of work and in India looking for a new job, he drops everything to come help her out. Soon the action picks up, with a terrorist attack in Parliament and peers dropping like flies.

Jack is abrasive and coarse. She's independent enough, and occasionally funny, but not often enough that I could really stand her very long. Amiss comes off as a wimp (he admits it himself several times during the book) and I wondered why he would even stick around since Jack took him for granted during the entire book.

I was not impressed at all by the characters and I sure won't be reading another one of these books.

[Damaskcat]

The irrepressible Jack Troutbeck has been made a life peer much to Robert Amiss’s surprise. When she co-opts him as a researcher he soon finds himself in the middle of some very dangerous shenanigans where pro and anti-hunting factions are concerned. Jack decides to make her maiden speech a pro-hunting one and decided to rally supporters against a bill currently proceeding through the Lords.

When several Peers are found dead following the debate Ellis Pooley and Jim Milton from Scotland Yard become involved and things start looking dangerous for Jack and Robert. There are some marvellously funny scenes in this book – most notably those featuring Plutarch, Robert’s cat. Both the pro and anti-hunting lobbies are satirised and animal rights activists come in for a fair amount of stick too.

This irreverent series takes apart some of the UK’s best loved and most hated institutions and provides interesting murder mysteries and lovable characters as well. If you like your crime novels with interesting backgrounds and not too much violence on the page then you may enjoy this series. The books can be read in any order but if you read them in the order in which they were published it’s easier to understand the development of the series characters.

[Sandi]

Still unemployed, former Civil Servant Robert Amiss is called in to help old friend Ida “Jack” Troutbeck after she has been elevated to the peerage. A funny look at the House of Lords and fox hunting with some murders mixed in. This is the second book with Jack and she has pretty much taken over the series which is fine with me since I find her hilarious. The audio was read by Bill Wallis who did his usual good job.

[Stephen Wagner]

Even as lightweight diversionary material this didn't work very well for me, Anglophile though I am.

[Regine]

Skewering.