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Nell Bray #10
Dead Man Riding
After three years of traipsing across Europe with her lovesick, widowed mother, Nell Bray has finally found her way to Oxford University. There she has befriended the beautiful Imogen and the charming Midge.
When the three girls decide to accept an invitation by their male classmates to join a reading party in the country during vacation - accompanied by a dashing philosophy don with a reputation for stirring up trouble - they go against what is quickly becoming the obsolete conventions of the nineteenth-century.
Once they arrive in the country, they are greeted by the unpleasant fact that their host has been accused of murder when a local boy is missing. Rather than return home, however, the six students and their mentor decide to put down their books and put their intellectual prowess to the test by solving the mystery.
This combination of mystery and learning - with some college crushes and loves along the way - makes Dead Man Riding Gillian Linscott's best mystery to date.
When the three girls decide to accept an invitation by their male classmates to join a reading party in the country during vacation - accompanied by a dashing philosophy don with a reputation for stirring up trouble - they go against what is quickly becoming the obsolete conventions of the nineteenth-century.
Once they arrive in the country, they are greeted by the unpleasant fact that their host has been accused of murder when a local boy is missing. Rather than return home, however, the six students and their mentor decide to put down their books and put their intellectual prowess to the test by solving the mystery.
This combination of mystery and learning - with some college crushes and loves along the way - makes Dead Man Riding Gillian Linscott's best mystery to date.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Linscott
47 books26 followersGillian Linscott introduced her popular suffragette/sleuth, Nell Bray, in the critically acclaimed Sister Beneath the Sheet. A BBC reporter turned full-time writer, she lives in Herefordshire, England.
Linscott has also published several titles under the pseudonym Caro Peacock.
Linscott has also published several titles under the pseudonym Caro Peacock.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 21, 2015
It was quite a relief after that Lawrence Block book. There is not much suspense, but much pleasant traipsing around adventure and genteel poking and prodding.
Nell Bray and her Oxford friends go on a slightly scandalous (for the era) co-ed philosophy outing during the summer. Alan has invited three young women to accompany the young men ... and one young don, Meredith. They are still wound up with Victorian proprieties even though they plan to discuss Plato's Republic. Their destination is the estate of Alan's great-uncle, a raiser of Arabian horses that the neighbors are calling a murderer ... and the old man himself doesn't disagree. He did fire a shotgun at a mob setting fire to his barn and one of them has disappeared. Worse, the victim's father is Magistrate.
Nell and her female friends actually have bloomers to wear, discuss sexual equality, and agonize over whether or not to have sexual relations with the men. Their seriousness is both annoying and endearing.
SPOILER
Oh come ON, you can tell from the beginning that there's some homosexuality floating around. Crikey! The only surprise is that it's unrequited. And then she goes and includes Plato's Symposium with Aristophanes' famous three sexes concept, male/male, female/female, and male/female and how the halves became separated from each other and ever since they seek their other half. It might only be hinted at, but any familiarity with Plato or "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" would clue the reader in.
As for the murderer, I was torn between the two least likely, which multiplied my chances of being right. Yeah, I was right. But why the victim had to be, had to be, tied to a horse was beyond me. It was as if the title came first.
Moderately enjoyable. Wouldn't be against reading more.
Nell Bray and her Oxford friends go on a slightly scandalous (for the era) co-ed philosophy outing during the summer. Alan has invited three young women to accompany the young men ... and one young don, Meredith. They are still wound up with Victorian proprieties even though they plan to discuss Plato's Republic. Their destination is the estate of Alan's great-uncle, a raiser of Arabian horses that the neighbors are calling a murderer ... and the old man himself doesn't disagree. He did fire a shotgun at a mob setting fire to his barn and one of them has disappeared. Worse, the victim's father is Magistrate.
Nell and her female friends actually have bloomers to wear, discuss sexual equality, and agonize over whether or not to have sexual relations with the men. Their seriousness is both annoying and endearing.
SPOILER
Oh come ON, you can tell from the beginning that there's some homosexuality floating around. Crikey! The only surprise is that it's unrequited. And then she goes and includes Plato's Symposium with Aristophanes' famous three sexes concept, male/male, female/female, and male/female and how the halves became separated from each other and ever since they seek their other half. It might only be hinted at, but any familiarity with Plato or "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" would clue the reader in.
As for the murderer, I was torn between the two least likely, which multiplied my chances of being right. Yeah, I was right. But why the victim had to be, had to be, tied to a horse was beyond me. It was as if the title came first.
Moderately enjoyable. Wouldn't be against reading more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 13, 2015
The old man tells Nell, "If you want anything, you just have to go and take it. If you all wanted it enough, you'd have had it by now."
If there is one thing I appreciated about this book, is the pace. It is slow and steady as Nell unravels the mystery of the old man's death, and the matter concerning his will.
The year is 1900, and young women are getting education but they are still second class citizens to the men, and Alan's invitation to his Uncle's place is a relief to the friends.
The opening sentence to the epilogue is nothing but an unfolding of events and personalities as you realize that you did overlook the characters.
If there is one thing I appreciated about this book, is the pace. It is slow and steady as Nell unravels the mystery of the old man's death, and the matter concerning his will.
The year is 1900, and young women are getting education but they are still second class citizens to the men, and Alan's invitation to his Uncle's place is a relief to the friends.
The opening sentence to the epilogue is nothing but an unfolding of events and personalities as you realize that you did overlook the characters.
May 16, 2008
Nell is a "modern woman" in 1900, a student at Oxford. She spends a summer with friends in the Lake District, hiking, discussing philosophy, experiencing romance, and investigating a murder.
August 23, 2015
first in this series that I have read and if kept me interested to the last page.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews