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Death on the Cherwell (Watson Sisters, #2)

Mavis Doriel Hay

Start date: July 1, 2021

Finish date: July 31, 2021

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our July group read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our July group read.

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Group reads

* Nominations for November 2025 group read
By Judy · 18 posts · 21 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 03:20PM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 13 posts · 11 views

last updated Sep 03, 2025 12:03PM

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What Members Thought

Jan 27, 2021 Anissa rated it liked it

Shelves: british-fiction-uk-ireland, 2021, mystery-suspense-crime, british-library-crime-classics

The body of Miss Denning, the bursar of Persephone College has been found dead in her canoe floating down a river and this sets off an inquiry into how that happened. She has a head injury and her clothes are wet, though the interior of the canoe is dry. It's sussed quickly that there's friction between her and the students of the college and also two nearby landowners as she was tasked with the acquisition of a tract of land to expand the college. The question of course is if that was what real ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2021 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

I enjoyed this - mostly listening to the audiobook. A Golden Age British murder mystery based in a women’s college at Oxford can’t escape comparison to Dorothy Sayers excellent “Gaudy Night”, I suppose, but this has a much more light-hearted feel, at least until the end.

On a cold January afternoon, four female undergraduate students are meeting on top of Persephone College’s boathouse for the inaugural session of their secret society, formed to bash their unpopular bursar (referred to throughout ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2021 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Looking at the cover of this novel, I imagined punting in the summer sun, so it was a little bit of a surprise to find out the story is set in January. Punting in Oxford in January seems extremely unlikely and, at least, some characters do question why the bursar of Persephone College, Miss Denning, decided to take her exercise that way. However, Miss Denning did indeed set out to row in January and is seen on the river. When friends, Sally, Daphne, Gwyneth and Nina meet up - equally implausibly ...more

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Jan 11, 2017 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, crime-fiction-uk, british-library-crime-classics, 1930s, 2017

Tough call on a star rating here -- I'll opt for like a 3.7 and round up to four stars -- it's a fun story that turned out to be a good mystery with a number of red herrings and many possible suspects.

This book begins with four undergraduate girls who are currently attending Persephone College, Oxford, holding a secret meeting on the roof of a nearby boathouse. They've decided to form their own secret society, the Lode League, the purpose of which is to curse the bursar, the not-much liked Mis Tough call on a star rating here -- I'll opt for like a 3.7 and round up to four stars -- it's a fun story that turned out to be a good mystery with a number of red herrings and many possible suspects.

This book begins with four undergraduate girls who are currently attending Persephone College, Oxford, holding a secret meeting on the roof of a nearby boathouse. They've decided to form their own secret society, the Lode League, the purpose of which is to curse the bursar, the not-much liked Miss Denning. Just as the group rings are being passed out, along comes what looks to be an empty canoe. The girls rush to bring it to shore and discover that the canoe is not only not empty, but that it's carrying the body of the very person they formed their League to curse. Evidently she'd drowned, but as one of the girls, Sally, asks

"How can anyone drown in a canoe?"

Very good question, actually, and one that brings in Scotland Yard to investigate. In the meantime, though, Miss Cordell, Principal of Persephone College, just dreads the publicity that this death is going to bring to the school, one reason why later, the main character Sally (one of the undergrads) realizes that "There'll be an awful tamasha about this," and decides that she and her friends should do all they can to "help try to clear up the mystery, " so as to "find it out so that Persephone doesn't look silly." That's not the only reason that the girls decide to get involved -- their fellow student Draga, a "Yugo-Slav," had already made her feelings about Miss Denning known after the bursar had, as Draga puts it, insulted her. The girls are keen to "cover her tracks," since outsiders evidently won't understand her Yugo-slav temperament. It's a fun little mystery story, and while my choice of suspect turned out to be the killer, it still took me a while to figure it out since there are a variety of people with motives to knock off Miss Denning.

Careful readers will note a wide strand of misogyny running throughout this mystery novel. At one point, for example, a few of the guy pals of our female amateur sleuths are talking, with the main question being that of why "most women get murdered." The answer for one of them is that "Some wretched man gets involved with too many of them and has to remove one or two." Hmmm. Then, of course, there's one suspect whose family has a long, long history of hating women, and as just one final example (although there are many), is that we are told in no uncertain terms that Cambridge in the 1930s has yet to offer real degrees for women students. There's also the anti-foreigner vibe going on a bit here, but thankfully, not too much.

It's a good read, very easy to get through, and I had a much better time with this book than I did with the author's first novel, Murder Underground. Unlike that one, about the only spot where Death on the Cherwell starts to get boggy is while the Inspector takes his time to try to pinpoint alibis for all and sundry, but otherwise it flows very nicely. There are even a few comedic spots that brought out a chuckle or two, my favorite centering on the girls' secret late-night surveillance of a property belonging to one of the suspects. But there's some serious stuff here as well, starting as the book comes down to the big reveal. Nancy Drew it is definitely NOT.

Do not miss Stephen Booth's excellent introduction which puts a nice perspective on Hay's work and that of Dorothy Sayer, whose Gaudy Night was also placed in an academic setting. While Hay's book isn't quite up to the Gaudy Night level of excellence (my personal favorite of Sayers' Lord Peter books), it's still quite fun and a great way to pass a quiet day. People into vintage crime, those who are following the British Library Crime Classics series, or those who are exploring the work of interwar women mystery writers will definitely find a good book here; it may also work well for cozy readers. Plus, I love the cover art -- just love it!!

http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/01/... ...more

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Mar 17, 2015 Damaskcat rated it really liked it

This is an interesting detective story originally published in the same year as Dorothy L Sayers' 'Gaudy Night' which was also takes place in Oxford. It is set in and around the fictional Persephone College where a dead don is found floating in her canoe along the Cherwell on a cold January afternoon. The four undergraduates who discover her decide to try and find out who murdered her. She appeared to have drowned but as several people remark you can't actually drown in a canoe and to drown in t ...more

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Jul 25, 2016 Jenn Estepp rated it it was ok

Shelves: sleuths-and-gumshoes, kindling, comfort-food

There were so many elements here that are reader catnip for me - Golden Age mystery, all-girl college, Oxford, eccentric gentry, etc. And yet, I found this a wee bit tedious and doubt I'll remember much about it. It just seemed pretty mediocre and boring and I wish it had been better. ...more

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Jan 25, 2023 Laura Anne rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, british-isles

This is an improvement upon Hay's (muddled & silly) Murder Underground. Nice combination of amateur-sleuth hijinks & police footwork; lightweight & enjoyable, although the student characters were mostly indistinguishable. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2019 Sarah G rated it liked it

Solid classic-style whodunnit.

As others have said, I found it rather slow at the start with the college students 'investigating' but it sped along once the police were properly involved in the story. ...more

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