Dying to Write

Sophie Rivers Mystery #2

by Judith Cutler

Sophie Rivers is attending a writing course when a fellow student is found dead. Although glamorous Nyree hadn't done a lot to endear herself to Sophie, nevertheless she didn't deserve to meet such a squalid end. A course tutor then goes missing and it is clear that one of Sophie's fellow students is responsible - perhaps the former convict Courtney, or pompous surgeon Gimson. Sophie is unable to control her investigative instincts, despite the fact that the police warn her to leave crime-solving to the professionals. Then Sophie herself becomes a victim... "Thoroughly modern, sharp, witty and literate" - Margaret Yorke "As tough and gritty as they come" - NORTHERN ECHO

Genres: Crime, Mystery

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Judith Cutler was born and bred in the Midlands, and revels in using her birthplace, with its rich cultural life, as a background for her novels. After a long stint as an English lecturer at a run-down college of further education, Judith, a prize-winning short-story writer, has taught Creative Writing at Birmingham University, has run occasional writing course elsewhere (from a maximum security prison to an idyltic Greek island) and ministered to needy colleagues in her role as Secretary of the Crime Writers' Association.

Reviews

[Dr M A Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read some of these books years ago and have just re-found them on Kindle. This one is set at a writers’ retreat and offers a perceptive and amusing analysis of these events, wrapped into a murder-kidnapping mystery. I will go on to read more of these, having also enjoyed other series by Judith Cutler, though I hope Sophie will get her act together a bit in future- she is written as bright and perceptive but failed to spot the obvious with regard to her relationship with Hugh, which was less than convincing. In general these are well written books by someone who obviously cares about written English, so it’s a bit sad that whoever prepared this particular text for Kindle has introduced an irritating number of typos. I’ve reported several using that feature on Kindle as I’m sure Cutler would be anxious to amend them, but it is disruptive to the reading process. Overall, an entertaining and fast paced story, which I enjoyed and which deserves more readers (and more meticulous publishers).

[Ursa Minor · Rating 2 out of 5]

A promising set up with some engaging characters, most especially Sidney the rat, unfortunately let down by a supremely silly plot. Judith Cutler can write which makes this book even more exasperating. I don’t mind the willing suspension of disbelief, otherwise I wouldn’t be reading this sort of detective story, but there needs to be some logic to how characters act and the results of their actions in the context of the world into which they are written. Here the police are apparently rank incompetents while the heroine-protagonist does their job, gets deservedly into sticky situations and then somehow while being described as a perfectly ordinary human with normal physical capacities pulls off a caper worthy of Modesty Blaise. The problem is that it should at least be charming or addictive or something but it’s not. It’s just irritating.

[Paul Allard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Murder mystery set in the Birmingham area - OK but ...

You really have to suspend your sense f reality when reading about Sophie and her investigation into murder, kidnapping and other nefarious goings-on. Why ? Would the police officers (several of which she knows from a previous story), really share so much information with a teacher of English - without much hesitation. We learn about her previous romantic entanglements while contemplating another. This all takes place in a writer's workshop in Eyre Hall. I feel that there's too much going on in this shortish novel although it's still quite enjoyable.

[Sue Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

This is the second book I have read in the Sophie Rivera series and I find I do not like her at all.
Although she is a principled and moralistic tutor in the first book she throws herself at a handsome conductor and then between the two books she had an affair with a married colleague. in the second book she homes in on a visiting poet and has sex with him several times only to find at the end of the book that he is married with children. Not my type of character at all.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Number 2 in this series which I intend to pursue.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Sophie Rivers mystery series. Sophie, a college lecturer, has won a prize of a creative writing course. The course is being held at a mansion just outside Birmingham and it seems to be jinxed from the start when one of the tutors is ill and one of the students is co-opted to take his place.

Sophie realises very quickly that the people attending the course are a very ill-assorted group – ranging from elderly to relatively young and from all walks of life. It is clear that some of them have met in other situations and are not at all at ease with each other.

When the resident nymphomaniac is found dead Sophie comes into contact with Chris Groom – the investigating officer – who is rather too fond of Sophie for her liking. This is an exciting mystery with a satisfyingly complex plot which includes a pet rat called Sidney, a missing tutor and a very glamorous poet – not to speak of some Japanese tourists who seem to very much in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are some nail biting happenings at various points in the story and it is touch and go whether everyone is going to come out of it in one piece.

The book kept me reading because I cared about the characters – even Sidney – and I wanted to find out what happened and what was behind the mayhem. There are many touches of humour and Sophie is very far from being a perfect character which makes her all the more likeable.