Product Description

His was a body to die for...Reduced to near penury by the iniquitous demands of the Inland Revenue, young barrister Julia Larwood spends the last of her savings on an Art Lovers holiday to Venice. But poor, romantic Julia - how could she possibly have guessed that the ravishing fellow Art Lover for whom she conceived a fatal passion was himself an employee of the Inland Revenue? Or that her hard-won night of passion with him would end in murder- with her inscribed copy of the current Finance Act subsequently discovered just a few feet away from the corpse...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #336585 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"* 'Without doubt, one of the funniest crime writers - ever!' - Mike Ripley * 'Witty, clever... an elaborately plotted, very English and charming story.' - Publishers Weekly * 'A finely honed, icily witty gem of detective fiction.' - Mystery News * 'Caudwell's light touch and the puzzle she presents make for a diverting tale.' - Washington Post Book World

Yorkshire Post, 23 May, 2002
'it's a pleasant, civilised way to pass an afternoon.'

Yorkshire Post, May 23, 2002
'a pleasant, civilised way to pass an afternoon.'

Customer Reviews

Don't let the sub-title put you off!
Yes, it is a whodunnit, and yes the main characters are a group of young barristers. But "a legal whodunnit" makes this sound both dull and old-fashioned, which it isn't! The main character is off to find fun and sex on a holiday she can't afford to take - and gets involved in murder as well, and what follows is how her friends manage to investigate the case. I can't tell you too much without spoiling the plot, other than that it is funny as well as being a good murder mystery - and it's the sort of book you'll want to read over again, so buy it don't borrow it! Oh yes, it's well written too.......

Brilliantly funny mystery
This is the first of Sarah Caudwell's series of legal whodunnits narrated by Hilary Temple, professor of Legal History at Oxford. Hilary's friends are a group of young barristers in Chancery Lane, Timothy, her former pupil, the austere and elegant Ragwort, impulsive, imaginative Cantrip, Selena, who is like 'a Persian cat which has just completed a succesful cross-examination' and passionate, susceptible, accident-prone Julia. Julia, who is having a disagreement with the tax man, decides to get away from it all by going on an Art Lovers tour of Italy, where she meets a beautiful young man called Ned and succumbs to his charms. Then one afternoon, after having enjoyed a passionate interlude with Ned, Julia finds him dead in bed. It turns out that Ned was an employee of the Inland Revenue, which means, as Ragwort reasonably points out, that anyone might have murdered him. However, Julia is chief suspect, and her colleagues set out to try and prove her innocence. They track down the other membersof the Art Lovers tour to try and find out the truth. Cantrip finds himself inteviewing a dodgy art dealer, the Major, who spends their time together telling Cantrip about all the women in his life. "The Major's known a lot of women. The right sort of women. The wrong sort of women. Women who would, women who wouldn't, women who might have. He told me about them all." This is a blissfully funny book. All the characters are hilarious, the book has a complex and ingeneous plot, witty dialogue, and a laugh in nearly every sentence.

an erudite romp through Venice and Lincoln's Inn
Hoping to temporarily forget the harrassment of the despised Inland Revenue, Julia goes to Venice on an Art Lovers' Holiday, armed only with borrowed guidebooks and a working knowledge of dead languages. She is hoping to find Love as well as Art, but the Inland Revenue intrudes and murderous as well as romantic complications ensue.

This book is a treat if you enjoy the golden days of the English language, bfr txtng. Ms Caudwell's prose zips along, and the very slight plot is almost incidental to the exposition of language and the opportunities for legal discourse. Her joy in language and quick wit are reminiscent of Ms D L Sayers. Her eminent ensemble of protagonists - young barristers and a slightly detached legal historian - work well together, and the off-stage characters of the temporary typists and the clerks very well drawn caricatures.