25 Steps to Getting Performance Problems off Your Desk - and Out of Your Life!

William Dougal #4

by Andrew Taylor

The old school is Rosington, located in an English hamlet of the same name, where people are as xenophobic as those in any hillbilly town in the Ozarks. They suspect old school boy James Hanbury of murdering his wife of seven weeks to collect her inheritance. Hanbury is a rogue, though he does continue to kennel his dead wife's dogs. Fortunately for him, William Dougal, a freelance philosopher, undertakes to ferret out the solution to the murder, but in the meantime, two more deaths occur. Characters here wear false identities, and an old girl turns up who knows a secret about an old boy escapade 30 years earlier. Taylor's fourth novel (Caroline Minuscule, proceeds as tediously as a rainy country weekend. Rosington is overpopulated with suspects who are also tiresome, crochety bores. Only Mrs. Hanbury, poor dear, is happily out of it.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Andrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim. He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994).

His other novels include The Office of the Dead (2000) and The American Boy (2003), both of which won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award, making Taylor the only author to receive the prize twice. His Roth trilogy, which has been published in omnibus form as Requiem for an Angel (2002), was adapted by the UK’s ITV for its television show Fallen Angel. Taylor’s most recent novel is the historical thriller The Scent of Death (2013).

Reviews

[Liz]

The beginning of this book is both intriguing and confusing. Both the main protagonists seem to have criminal pasts and are trying to avoid other characters, so I sometimes felt I had picked up Part 2 of a trilogy.
The world in which the characters move is, as the title suggests, very upper middle class and it’s hard to relate to them.
However the book does get better as some more sympathetic characters are introduced and the main viewpoint character is humorous and likeable.
As a whodunnit it is not brilliant. The main characters are not differentiated enough to spark much interest in the outcome. The clues to the murdere’s identity are interesting but a little too subtle.
So basically it’s an ok read but I have read better by this author.

[Kenn Coates]

An Old School Tie

I do admire Taylor's writing style, which seems to be equal parts distraction , nay misdirection, and unnecessarily detailed description of background; yet i cannot resist turning the pages to discover what comes next. Brilliant!

[Wild-Rogue-Rose]

Dougal knew that good manners required him to leave at least a note of farewell. But what could he say? ‘Must rush. Thank you so much for tea. Have violated your privacy and stolen a few of your son’s letters.'
~ favorite quote

I really liked this book, most would call me an easily entertained ignoramus and that this lacked. . . Whatever you would say it lacked. But it kept me guessing who the villain was and I loved the tie's presence at beginning and end. Greatly would have wanted more on Carrot, but alas maybe in one of Taylor's other novels.
Happy Mum purchased and gave it to me.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

Working my way through the William Dougal series. It's not a patch on Taylor's later work but it's still pretty entertaining and worth seeking out if you like his stuff. This one is set in Rosington again, an imaginary cathedral city that appears throughout Taylor's work, it's fun filling in this imaginary universe.

[John Mccullough]

A good classic British who-dun-it with reference to a great English/British institution - the school tie, as indicated by the title. Enjoyable as good summer reading and a reminder of what I enjoyed in England.

[Lester]

I must 'say'..really liked this story..it was so fun to read..old style and funny!!
Oh..and a new word...
'Climacteric;--a critical period or event'
-from the book...
"I've reached my climacteric, as it were."