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A Legal Fiction
When an old but seemingly worthless painting that was stolen from Dr. Colin Lockie in Scotland reappears in southern England, it is linked to an unsolved murder
- GenresMystery
330 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1964
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 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 16, 2026
Guy takes a supposedly worthless painting to get cleaned. Guy gets robbed on his way. Many years later, guy gets informed by Pretty Childhood Friend that the painting has shown up at an estate auction. PCF gets unexpectedly outbid. Guy and PCF endeavor to find and... reacquire... the painting for the sake of the elderly aunts to whom it should rightly belong. The painting may be a lost Rubens and worth a bajillion dollars. Also complicating issues is the ancient english common law concept of "market overt" (essentially meaning that if you bought a stolen thing that you didn't know was stolen and you did it in public, it's yours).
The plot here was unique enough to me to be entertaining, even if the protagonists aren't some of Ferrars best, and the "bad guys" trend toward the Scooby Doo Villain side of the spectrum.
The plot here was unique enough to me to be entertaining, even if the protagonists aren't some of Ferrars best, and the "bad guys" trend toward the Scooby Doo Villain side of the spectrum.
October 2, 2009
A mystery story in the old fashioned sense of the word, published in 1964 and probably set around that time too. If its any indication of the time of the story being told, £10 is a lot of money in the story.
This is one of those books you pick up for R10 and read in a day. It’s a very easy read. The story is well crafted and unravels slowly. It is less of a murder mystery than a fraud expose. A painting on auction is the central object of interest in the story, and the tale is of how the two protagonists find out how the painting, a rather valuable one as it turns out, landed up at the auction.
Colin and Ginny bounce about the UK, leaving murders, thefts and cat fights in their wake. But they are the goodies and, inevitably, solve the mystery and fall in love. Very predictable for the 1960s I think.
The underlying theme of the book is trust, and how sometimes you simply have to decide to trust someone.
Also, when more than one explanation fits a situation, the lesson is that you do not simply decide on one, but rather gather more information to be able to make a considered decision.
If you happen to remember the name of this book and see it in a second hand book barrel for R10 or so, buy it and spend an afternoon reading it.
I am going to take it to my local book exchange, but I don’t think I wasted today reading it.
This is one of those books you pick up for R10 and read in a day. It’s a very easy read. The story is well crafted and unravels slowly. It is less of a murder mystery than a fraud expose. A painting on auction is the central object of interest in the story, and the tale is of how the two protagonists find out how the painting, a rather valuable one as it turns out, landed up at the auction.
Colin and Ginny bounce about the UK, leaving murders, thefts and cat fights in their wake. But they are the goodies and, inevitably, solve the mystery and fall in love. Very predictable for the 1960s I think.
The underlying theme of the book is trust, and how sometimes you simply have to decide to trust someone.
Also, when more than one explanation fits a situation, the lesson is that you do not simply decide on one, but rather gather more information to be able to make a considered decision.
If you happen to remember the name of this book and see it in a second hand book barrel for R10 or so, buy it and spend an afternoon reading it.
I am going to take it to my local book exchange, but I don’t think I wasted today reading it.
October 29, 2014
Published in America as The Decayed Gentlewoman. Colin is reunited with his childhood friend Ginny when she finds A painting, owned by his great aunts, that was stolen several years ago, up for sale at an auction. She thinks the aunts would like it back, but neither of them realize that it's actually quite valuable. A subtle difference in English and Scottish law give them a loophole to recapture the painting, but they don't realize that they're dealing with some people who are willing to play hardball to get what they want.
May 8, 2013
This is one for the lovers of cozy fiction. It's a nice murder mystery with a bit of a romance thrown in. We have a Scottish hero and his old sweetheart, a stolen painting and a delightful collection of zany characters. No blood or guts, no excessive violence but lots of mystery and red herrings.
A gentle quiet read for those who enjoy trying to guess whodunnit without having to wade their way through four letter words and brutality.
A gentle quiet read for those who enjoy trying to guess whodunnit without having to wade their way through four letter words and brutality.
July 27, 2014
Read this as an audiobook for the car - I thought I had listened to every Ferrars audiobook in my local library but if I heard or read this one before it was so long ago that I didn't remember it! Pretty much what I would expect from an E.X. Ferrars cozy mystery, an engaging if somewhat farfetched story that moves along at a steady pace. A good summer read.
May 10, 2014
Fun mystery by a new author to me. Set in Britain in the 1950's or so.
September 29, 2025
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.com/2025/...
https://crossexaminingcrime.com/2025/...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews