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Virginia Freer #4
Death of a Minor Character
Virginia and Felix Freer, separated but still semiattached, are both present at the ill-fated party - Virginia because the hostess is an Australian friend returning home, and Felix because he happens to live in the flat below hers. Among the guests, Virginia discovers, are people who have a connection to an antique dealer neighbour of hers. Within a couple of days both Virginia and Felix find them.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1983
About the author
Elizabeth Ferrars
91 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 22, 2018
Virginia Freer is shocked by the murder of an antique dealer she knows in the quiet town where she lives. She's more shocked when her estranged husband Felix calls to tell her that another murder has been committed--a pleasant old lady was killed in his building in London. Oddly enough, there are several people the two victims had in common, even excluding the Freers. Virginia reaches out to the dead man's widow and finds herself more deeply involved than she would have chosen.
April 18, 2024
An easy, entertaining read. Main character is likeable.
This is the first book I’ve read by E.X. Ferrars.
This is the first book I’ve read by E.X. Ferrars.
April 13, 2026
Not as good as its predecessor, but still with its charms, and we do still kind of get the animal motif, this time in the form of a dragon god emblem that appears within the artistic output of a surly jeweler suspect.
The plot specifics here concern antiques, revenge and drug smuggling, with a cast that was for me about two people too many for me to easily keep them separate enough in my mind to care about them individually. The pace also occasionally hobbles along like one of our suspects.
On the other hand, the relationship between the two divorcees continues to be more than enough to propel this series along. There's a realness to the two disappointments these two carry (he thinks she's too cynical; she worries about when she can fully trust him) that allow the flashes of caring they have for each other all the more resonant. Ferrars ups that ante by quietly bringing onto the stage a few side characters who could get in the way of a full reunion (in an appealing dramatic way.)
A couple favorite passages from this one:
"'Because the truth commits one so horribly,' Felix said. 'You can't get out of it, even when you want to. But as long as there's an element of uncertainty about everything you say, you can always adjust it as you go along. That's what lawyers do, I've been told.'"
"There was a slight pause, then Felix said, 'Virgina, you're becoming distinctly peculiar. You doubt everything everybody says. You should be careful. It might develop into some quite serious form of neurosis.'
'Let's keep off the psychoanalysis,' I said. 'I've a feeling you may not have a really good grasp of the subject.'"
The plot specifics here concern antiques, revenge and drug smuggling, with a cast that was for me about two people too many for me to easily keep them separate enough in my mind to care about them individually. The pace also occasionally hobbles along like one of our suspects.
On the other hand, the relationship between the two divorcees continues to be more than enough to propel this series along. There's a realness to the two disappointments these two carry (he thinks she's too cynical; she worries about when she can fully trust him) that allow the flashes of caring they have for each other all the more resonant. Ferrars ups that ante by quietly bringing onto the stage a few side characters who could get in the way of a full reunion (in an appealing dramatic way.)
A couple favorite passages from this one:
"'Because the truth commits one so horribly,' Felix said. 'You can't get out of it, even when you want to. But as long as there's an element of uncertainty about everything you say, you can always adjust it as you go along. That's what lawyers do, I've been told.'"
"There was a slight pause, then Felix said, 'Virgina, you're becoming distinctly peculiar. You doubt everything everybody says. You should be careful. It might develop into some quite serious form of neurosis.'
'Let's keep off the psychoanalysis,' I said. 'I've a feeling you may not have a really good grasp of the subject.'"
December 8, 2024
A slow detection story, one in a series featuring Virginia and Felix, a couple amiably separated who share a group of friends in a small community and put their heads together to solve murders. The novel was written in 1983 and has an old time feel. This is a slow going detection story, a lot of Virginia’s thought process, Virginia and Felix discussing possible motives, scenarios, and analyzing each other and their friends. This is not a compelling read, I found it dull at times; neither Felix nor Virginia are engaging characters. I would probably not read any of her other novels, and she wrote quite a few featuring this couple.
March 17, 2026
Very nice read
Virginia and Felix continue to sparkle. Their complicated friendship makes them seem more real. The plot of this particular story is a bit twisted, involving murder, smuggling and drugs. The end has more violence than I expected, though it is not graphic. Recommended
Virginia and Felix continue to sparkle. Their complicated friendship makes them seem more real. The plot of this particular story is a bit twisted, involving murder, smuggling and drugs. The end has more violence than I expected, though it is not graphic. Recommended
May 26, 2024
Dull. And, Felix is far too irritating.
October 7, 2024
Enjoyed - Virginia as always is a bit clueless about what is going on, but Felix comes up with the answer, plus a little tap on the head.
September 8, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews