Lessons in Solving the Wrong Problem, by Charlie Cochrane

[Ulysses]

Lessons in Solving the Wrong Problem
By Charlie Cochrane
Published by the author, 2020
Five stars

So, set in 1912, this adventure of our two Cambridge dons is a “before” story…before the War, before the Spanish Flu. Invited to view an archaeological site near Cambridge, Jonty and Orlando are fascinated by the idea of a full-blown Roman villa in their world (as was I). Then the duo is taken up by Lord Byrd, the landowner and, as it happens, a fellow enthusiast for digging up old things. Not only does Lord Byrd know Jonty’s family, but he has an old mystery he’d like their advice on.

Turns out, there are really THREE mysteries, all of them made more mysterious by the passage of time and the death of several of the participants. Jonty and Orlando step up to the task, and begin to delve – gently and discreetly – into the life of the Byrd family over the last thirty years.

There’s a possible ghost story; a possible theft of buried treasures; and a possible murder in the offing, and as Jonty and Orlando carefully pick apart the tale, it turns out that all of the possibilities are possibly interconnected.

The charm of these books is the main characters themselves. These two men, bound together by love and career, face the world with a broad empathy and a deep understanding of what causes people sadness and shame. With confidence bolstered by the support of Jonty’s own remarkable family, the duo are fearless and diplomatic in their probing of others’ most sensitive secrets, teasing the truth out of people who are reluctant to expose themselves to any more pain.

Here, as is often true in these books, there are no earth-shaking solutions. There is no revenge exacted, nor even any justice attained. Truth is, sometimes, enough. In this particular book, the reader ends up being the only one who knows as much as Jonty and Orlando do; and we’re happy to be in on their secret.