What do you think?
Rate this book
A sprig of sea lavender: A novel
A young woman races down the platform just in time to catch her train, but too late to save her life. Before she can reach London, she's discovered dead in her seat--at her side a portfolio containing a fortune in unlisted art works; at her feet, a sprig of sea lavender.Piet Deventer of Scotland Yard has a passion for painting. He follows the scent to a seaside art colony where casual camaraderie creates teh perfect cover ofr a killer and a master criminal intent on pulling off the most daring swindle of the decade.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1978
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 1, 2020
3.5 STARS | I won't say this is a mystery for everyone, but as I have a particular affection for art mysteries, I enjoyed it quite a bit. My pet peeve with depictions of art or painters in fiction is that they rarely ring true to me, being an artist myself. I give up on them quickly. Some detail brings me up short. This was an exception. Anderson seemed convincingly knowledgeable of art and certainly 19th century Romantic painters including Constable, Gainsborough and Turner. And the fact that his detective Inspector Piet Deventer is on the art squad and is a painter himself made it irresistible to me. Additionally, his descriptions of Constable country were spot on. Piet discusses art avoiding the emotionalism that is so annoying in art critics. He talks about art as a technician or a craftsman would, with a true love of it.
In the book a young woman is found dead on a train clutching a portfolio of possibly genuine paintings by the aforementioned Masters. At her feet is a sprig of sea lavender as the only clues. They take Piet to a seaside commune of artists and loners, some of whom live in a windmill together. The jealousies and backbiting lead Piet to believe his murderer is among them and he enters the commune posing as a fellow artist.
As a mystery, a Sprig of Sea Lavender was interesting but not jaw-dropping. It had some of the plodding-along of a typical police procedural and at times I wanted to speed it up a bit, but Piet was such an interesting character that I didn't mind spending more time with him.
In the book a young woman is found dead on a train clutching a portfolio of possibly genuine paintings by the aforementioned Masters. At her feet is a sprig of sea lavender as the only clues. They take Piet to a seaside commune of artists and loners, some of whom live in a windmill together. The jealousies and backbiting lead Piet to believe his murderer is among them and he enters the commune posing as a fellow artist.
As a mystery, a Sprig of Sea Lavender was interesting but not jaw-dropping. It had some of the plodding-along of a typical police procedural and at times I wanted to speed it up a bit, but Piet was such an interesting character that I didn't mind spending more time with him.
January 11, 2023
2.5 Stars
Here's the deal with this one: I read this when I was 14 for a dissertation I had to do for grade 9 English. We had to choose a book from our school library that WASN'T Stephen King (the bane of every English teacher, lol). I picked this one up from the rack, opened the first page, and saw the towns Sudbury, Markstay (Mark's Tey in the book) and Chelmsford all within the first few pages! Mind you, the author is talking about towns in the UK, but still...Being from Sudbury, Ontario, and having a love of art, this was the one I decided on.
Fast forward to now. The odd title has always been in my memory bank, but the plot was forgotten about. I found a copy on Internet Archive and decided to re-read it.
And well...it's not bad. Good story overall, but the writing is repetitive, and manner of speaking shows its age. I was able to skip paragraphs without consequence when the story got too stuck on details.
I also found most of the characters' names sounded too much alike: Shirley, Sandra, Sally/ Trudi, Trish. Seriously, writers, think how that affects your reader. It confused me...
Here's the deal with this one: I read this when I was 14 for a dissertation I had to do for grade 9 English. We had to choose a book from our school library that WASN'T Stephen King (the bane of every English teacher, lol). I picked this one up from the rack, opened the first page, and saw the towns Sudbury, Markstay (Mark's Tey in the book) and Chelmsford all within the first few pages! Mind you, the author is talking about towns in the UK, but still...Being from Sudbury, Ontario, and having a love of art, this was the one I decided on.
Fast forward to now. The odd title has always been in my memory bank, but the plot was forgotten about. I found a copy on Internet Archive and decided to re-read it.
And well...it's not bad. Good story overall, but the writing is repetitive, and manner of speaking shows its age. I was able to skip paragraphs without consequence when the story got too stuck on details.
I also found most of the characters' names sounded too much alike: Shirley, Sandra, Sally/ Trudi, Trish. Seriously, writers, think how that affects your reader. It confused me...
March 28, 2022
Despite a promising central character who comes off the page very well, and despite a good, intricate puzzle containing murder and several other crimes, the writing style is clunky for the most part, silly in places, thin in others, and just doesn't do service to the book's outline. Still, it wasn't so completely terrible that I had to stop reading, but do be warned.
For example, two art experts are discussing a painting to be authenticated. They actually feel the need to explain, to each other and at length, what the meaning of "provenance" is!
The central detective meets a young woman and is instantly attracted to her. That's okay, but at the end of the book, which is maybe one week later, he proposes marriage and she accepts! They haven't even spent all that much time together, and what time they've spent, they've not done enough to make me think this is a good idea without more development.
The detective is a Scotland Yard man and has to coordinate several operations with rural, local police, and the situations are presented as awkwardly as a young teen's first date experience. Everybody ends up liking everybody else despite the awkwardness.
The "good guys" are really good in all ways. The bad guy we've met is also partly good and has a heart of gold. The ones we didn't get a chance to meet are all murderous and black hearted, no matter what their usual crimes are. Several characters could have been given some personality, but the author chose to leave them blank, and they function merely as cardboard cutouts.
Not recommended except for a quick palate cleanser after something deep and difficult.
For example, two art experts are discussing a painting to be authenticated. They actually feel the need to explain, to each other and at length, what the meaning of "provenance" is!
The central detective meets a young woman and is instantly attracted to her. That's okay, but at the end of the book, which is maybe one week later, he proposes marriage and she accepts! They haven't even spent all that much time together, and what time they've spent, they've not done enough to make me think this is a good idea without more development.
The detective is a Scotland Yard man and has to coordinate several operations with rural, local police, and the situations are presented as awkwardly as a young teen's first date experience. Everybody ends up liking everybody else despite the awkwardness.
The "good guys" are really good in all ways. The bad guy we've met is also partly good and has a heart of gold. The ones we didn't get a chance to meet are all murderous and black hearted, no matter what their usual crimes are. Several characters could have been given some personality, but the author chose to leave them blank, and they function merely as cardboard cutouts.
Not recommended except for a quick palate cleanser after something deep and difficult.
January 24, 2018
A good read and set in my Essex/Suffolk locations.
April 1, 2012
A Sprig of Sea Lavender by J. R. L. Anderson has been something of a Holy Grail-type book for me. It got added to my TBR/TBF list sometime in the 1980s and I've kept an eye out for it whenever I've gone to used book stores or book sales--with no luck. And then my mother-in-law went to visit her sister at Christmas and they went to a used book store in Jacksonville, FL. Mom-in-law was armed with a list of some of my most-wanted books (she didn't seem to want to take all 10-15 pages of my To-Be-Found list with her--I can't imagine why). Wonder of wonders, she came home with the Anderson book (along with 30-some others; have I mentioned what a great mom-in-law I have?).
Now, I can't exactly explain why this book appealed to me so much that I kept it on the TBF list for 20 years. I found it listed in The Mystery Lover's Companion by Art Bourgeau and something about his synopsis grabbed me and held on tight:
Piet Deventer of Scotland Yard investigates the murder of a young woman found dead on a train, with a fortune in artworks in a portfolio next to her. The only clue is a sprig of sea lavender. the trail leads to the seaside in an excellent read.
Not precisely a description to make you drop everything and run out to find it.....and yet I felt like it was a must-find. And, while I have disagreed with some of his favorites, I have found his ratings to be pretty reliable over-all.
Now, of course, you're wondering--was it worth the wait?
First things first, though. How about a little more on what it's all about? As mentioned the story begins and centers on the death of a young woman on a train. She comes rushing to the platform just as the train was pulling out and is hauled aboard by a young solicitor from London. From the beginning, he thinks she isn't feeling well and isn't surprised when she seems to fall into an exhausted sleep. However, when they reach their destination he finds that he can't waken her. For good reason, she's dead. The woman has no identification on her and the only items found in her possession or near her in the compartment are a portfolio of artwork and a sprig of wildflower later identified as sea lavender.
Chief Inspector Piet Deventer has had experience as an artist and serves as part of the Fine Arts Division of Scotland Yard. He is called in to check out the portfolio and is astonished find that three of the paintings appear to be unknown works by Constable, Gainsborough and Turner. If genuine, this means that the young woman was carrying a treasure-trove of artwork with her when she died. An examination soon proves that she died of an overdose of barbiturates--but the case is further complicated by the traces of arsenic also found in her system. Using good old-fashioned leg work, Deventer manages to discover the identity of the victim and uses his background in the arts to go undercover at a seaside art colony to get to the bottom of mystery.
This is a good, solid mystery. Not quite as fairly clued as I would like (there's no way I could have figured out the true identity of the culprit/s), but a nicely written police procedural. I like the character of Piet Deventer very much and would like to read more stories featuring him (note to self--are there more stories featuring him? A quick peek at the interwebs would seem to say no. :-( ). I'm glad I kept the book on my list--but, in all honesty, it's not the Holy Grail of mysteries, nor anything like. Just a good average book written in the late 70s. A quick read and full of adventure. Three stars.
{This review is mine and was first posted on my blog at http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/20.... Please request permission to repost. Thanks.}
March 31, 2011
A Sprig of Sea Lavender is a nice little mystery tale that begins with a young girl dead on a train with what may be hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of paintings. Chief Inspector Piet Deventer, himself an artist as well as a policeman, investigates the murder.
Piet Deventer is an excellent character, very three dimensional and dynamic. No other character in the book comes close to being as well described as he, up to and including both his love interest and the villain. I would be interested in reading more about him, except for the rather bland love interest, with whom, it seems, he intends to spend the rest of his days. I have a problem with this relationship mostly because they have known each other for less than four days by the end of the book and most of that time they are not even together. She does seem clever, but it seems unlikely they'd be talking marriage at the end of that time. I'd buy, "Hey, we should continue to see each other now that no one's trying to kill us and see how that goes," but not "Here, have my grandmother's ring. Oh look, it fits you perfectly." Seriously, for a mystery so intricately well-built and detailed, it's unfortunate for the reader to feel they've been gagged by the sickening sweetness of this subplot romance.
I should say, though, that the murder mystery really is very nicely written with enough twists and red-herrings to keep even a jaded mystery reader feeling the suspense of I-have-to-know-whodunit before I can sleep!!!
Piet Deventer is an excellent character, very three dimensional and dynamic. No other character in the book comes close to being as well described as he, up to and including both his love interest and the villain. I would be interested in reading more about him, except for the rather bland love interest, with whom, it seems, he intends to spend the rest of his days. I have a problem with this relationship mostly because they have known each other for less than four days by the end of the book and most of that time they are not even together. She does seem clever, but it seems unlikely they'd be talking marriage at the end of that time. I'd buy, "Hey, we should continue to see each other now that no one's trying to kill us and see how that goes," but not "Here, have my grandmother's ring. Oh look, it fits you perfectly." Seriously, for a mystery so intricately well-built and detailed, it's unfortunate for the reader to feel they've been gagged by the sickening sweetness of this subplot romance.
I should say, though, that the murder mystery really is very nicely written with enough twists and red-herrings to keep even a jaded mystery reader feeling the suspense of I-have-to-know-whodunit before I can sleep!!!
March 12, 2011
This could best be described as a palate cleanser -- something to read after a
heavy duty noir type novel. A police procedural of sorts, I stuck with it mostly
because it's set in Lavenham in the U.K. where I recently learned my family is from.
Art forgeries, gold robberies, hippies (it's 1978) and communes and a murder or two.
heavy duty noir type novel. A police procedural of sorts, I stuck with it mostly
because it's set in Lavenham in the U.K. where I recently learned my family is from.
Art forgeries, gold robberies, hippies (it's 1978) and communes and a murder or two.
March 27, 2011
Written in the 1970s and it shows....
October 14, 2016
Good. I'll read more.
June 7, 2019
Somewhat old-fashioned tone.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews