Monday, December 07, 2020

2020 book 226

 Sarah Caudwell's Thus was Adonis Murdered

Always delighted to discover a new-to-me British mystery author! This series focuses on one Hilary Tamar (gender unspecified), a legal scholar at Oxford who I guess solves mysteries occasionally. In this first one, a young lawyer friend on vacation in Venice is arrested for murder! Can Hilary prove her innocence? The mystery here is fine, what really shines are the (hilarious, dry) narrative voice and the characters. Also, for a book written in 1981, everyone is surprisingly gay and/or libidinous. SIDE NOTE, the author's mother was apparently the model for Sally Bowles in Cabaret, except she was mad about that bc she was in actuality super political, whereas Sally is not. Anyway, an enjoyable read, I look forward to more of these! A-.

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