Foggy Foggy Dew

by Charity Blackstock

On a brief visit to London, Andrew Mallory, a British anthropologist, describes his work to a young woman he meets at a party, only to later learn that she has been murdered

Genres: Mystery

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Ursula Torday
aka
Paula Allardyce, Charity Blackstock, Lee Blackstock, Charlotte Keepel

Ursula Torday was born on 19 February 1912 (some sources say her birth in 1888 or 1914) in London, England, UK, daughter of mixed parents, her mother was Scottish and her father was Hungarian. She studied at Kensington High School in London, before went to the Oxford University, where she obtained a BA in English at Lady Margaret Hall College, and later a Social Science Certificate at London School of Economics.

In 1930s, she published her first three novels with her real name, Ursula Torday. During the World War II she worked as a probation officer for the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and during the next seven years afterwars, she also running a refugee scheme for Jewish children, inspiration for several of her future novels like, The Briar Patch (aka Young Lucifer) and The Children (aka Wednesday's Children) as Charity Blackstock. She worked as a typist at the National Central Library in London, inspiration for her future novel Dewey Death as Charity Blackstock. She also teaching English to adult students. She returned to publishing in early 1950s, using the pseudonyms of Paula Allardyce, Charity Blackstock (in some cases reedited as Lee Blackstock in USA), to sign her gothic romance and mistery novels, later she also used the pseudonym of Charlotte Keppel. Her novel Miss Fenny (aka The Woman in the Woods) as Charity or Lee Blackstock was nominated for Edgar Award. In 1961, her novel Witches' Sabbath won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. She passed away in 1997.

Reviews

[Alton Motobu · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the strangest books I have ever read - both in terms of the content and the plot development. A Scottish anthropologist who is studying an island culture somewhere in the south Pacific returns to England for the Christmas holidays. The first day there he picks up a teen-age girl off the streets and takes her to dinner and a show; she goes to the ladies room and is bashed in the head and killed. He discovers her body and promptly runs away although he is totally innocent of the crime. He sees a beautiful woman and falls in love with her to the point where he proposes marriage. He is suddenly kidnapped and tortured for reasons unknown but is rescued by his bethrothed, although it seems a miracle that she could find him much less extract him from the predicament. He manages to kill the kidnappers, and he and his fiancee plan a fine wedding and life in the islands. It is only in the final 12 pages of the book that things are explained. The teen-age girl was murdered because during the dinner show she may have overheard a coded language although the nature of the message is not explained. The murderer was the beautiful woman who was involved in some sort of sinister plot; she was in cahoots with the kidnappers. In the end it is implied that the wedding was called off. But nothing about all these strange occurrences is explained!!! What a horrible experience to read this book!

I found this book on a cozy Christmas mystery list, but except for two mentions of the word "Christmas" in the book there is nothing about Christmas in the entire plot. Do not trust these lists; read the books for yourself.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: back home, Andrew Mallory hears an obscure dialect. A girl is killed who heard it too.