Murder in the Maze

Trewley & Stone #3

by Sarah J. Mason

When Dr. Radlett's lovely young wife is found murdered in the middle of a hedge maze during the village's annual summer fete, the newly-formed detecting duo of Trewley and Stone must crack the case

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, British Literature

218 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

About the author

Aka Hamilton Crane

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"FATAL FETE
"The village of Redingote anticipated the usual misbehavior during the annual summer fete. But no one expected a murder ... least of all the victim, Dr. Radlett's beautiful young wife, found dead center in the hedge maze.

"INTRODUCING TREWLEY AND STONE
"Detective Superintendent Trewley as years of experience probing the dark secrets of cozy English village life. But even he can use a bit of help sometimes. That's where Detective Sergeant Stone comes in: with the mind of a scientist and a black belt in judo, she's the perfect partner for tough old Trewley. And together, they're set to solve the puzzle of Mrs. Radlett's death -- if they don't get lost in the middle of a maze of clues first ..."
~~back cover

I absolutely adored this book -- it's the quintessential English village cozy, with all the charm of English characters between the wars. The murderer isn't at all obvious until the very end, just as a good English cozy should do. Definitely a keeper!

[Eugene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listed on Goodreads as #3, but #1 elsewhere…either way, an unfortunate intro to this series. Having recently discovered the Miss Seton series, and thoroughly enjoyed the few I’ve read, I discovered that Sarah J. Mason was one of the “replacement” authors of those after the untimely death of Herron Carvic; James Melville wrote #6-8 under the pen name Hampton Sides, Ms. Mason wrote at least a dozen more as Hamilton Crane.
Then I began seeing these Trewley and Stone mysteries in the used bookshops (surely some of the most enchanted places on our pleasant planet!), and of course began stockpiling them for more enjoyable future reading. Alas! The cover blurb refers to “cozy English village” tales, more like trite and hackneyed English tales, replete with voluminous transcriptions of dialog annotated with spellings and diacritical marks to ensure we are well-saturated with cockney phrasings, in place of character development. Cor! Blimey, summat an orful task tryin’ ta wade through ‘em all wivout nae episodes of the collywobbles, eh what Guv’nor?
As I’ve obtained all 6 of these, I’ll hope this is just an author finding her way in the early going, rather than a portent of things to come…
Anyway, there’s a murder in the maze at the annual Redingote summer fete, and another after that when DS Trewley and Sergeant Stone begin to close in, finally nabbing the miscreant. And you can read it all here.

[Linda Lawrie]

First novel? Pretty bad.