Synopsis
Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, rumbustious Mistress of St. Martha's College, Cambridge, is joining the Establishment - soon to be elevated to peer in the House of Lords. Although she finds the dafter aspects of the House of Lords hilarious, from the first day she becomes enthusiastically involved in its work. Disinclined to watch her language or moderate her manners, she causes consternation among conventional peers, but plots vigorously with others - including a mischievous duke - to defeat an anti-hunting bill she violently opposes.
To assist her, Baroness Troutbeck conscripts her friend Robert Amiss, academic and reluctant sleuth. His initial liberal wavering about the rights and wrongs of the old English fox hunt quickly gives way to a determination to defeat the puritans and fanatics who abound among the animal activists. Though hampered by the eccentrics and bores on his side, he and the baroness are feeling confident of winning this contentious battle, when a campaign of intimidation begins.
What follows rocks the seeming perpetual calm of the noble half of Parliament. A murderous attempt is made on an esteemed lord, and then a week later a ghastly explosion inside the House of Lords kills several peers. Robert Amiss finds himself in the middle of the foray, and he must discover who is responsible before more innocent people are killed. What he learns may leave the Establishment reeling in controversy.
Reviews
The sixth Robert Amiss mystery is a wonderful romp set largely among the Lords of Parliament?either in their chambers or on their estates. The redoubtable Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, Mistress of St. Mary's College, Cambridge (seen in Matricide at St. Martha's), about to be elevated to the House of Lords, imperiously enlists the bookish Amiss to assist her in her latest campaign, namely to defend the ancient British tradition of fox-hunting from an all-out assault by various animal-rights activists. Amiss doesn't quite approve of hunting, but that doesn't deter Troutbeck: "Bugger your moral susceptibilities," she orders, and he does. While the opposition counts among its supporters the likes of Brother Francis (Lord Purseglove), whose vapid nature poetry would embarrass a bunny rabbit, Troutbeck's allies include a couple of boorish lords who must be controlled, while the Rights of Animals League proves a formidable foe. Troutbeck is great fun?a woman of large and lusty appetites who demolishes arguments or a glass of whisky with equal gusto. Amiss is swept along in her wake as the war of words and wits turns to a murderous assault in the House of Lords that leaves several members dead and others shaken. Edwards ably skewers fox-hunters and anti-fox hunters alike, as well as a slew of other targets in this farcical and appealing mystery.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Sometime sleuth, ex-civil servant Robert Amiss (Matricide at St. Martha's, 1995, etc.) once again jumps to the command of Ida (Jack) Troutbeck--Mistress of St. Martha's College, Cambridge, and now the newly named Baroness Troutbeck, a peeress in the House of Lords. Amiss has been called back from a sojourn in India, leaving behind his lover Rachel, to help Jack defeat an upcoming bill that would outlaw foxhunting. He's to do research and help marshal forces against animal-rights organizations ranging from benign to crazed. Jack has her supporters, like Bertie, Duke of Stormerod, Lord Reginald Poulteney, and others. Meantime, the proposer of the bill, Lady Beatrice Parsons, counts on help from the syrupy monk Brother Francis and firebrand Jerry Dolamore. All strategies are thrown into turmoil, though, when, at the close of Jack's maiden speech in the House, eight members are found dead in their seats- -all of them, it transpires, wearers of pacemakers. That's far from the end of wholesale carnage, as the antiterrorist squad, Amiss, and his Scotland Yard pals Ellis Pooley and Jim Milton work through a bunch of false trails to establish how the killings were done, the who and the why. The author's P.G. Wodehousestyle flippancy rarely falters through all the mayhem; her heroine has never seemed more obnoxious, nor the cat Plutarch's antics more tedious. Frantic, forced, and not much fun. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Outspoken head of St. Martha's College, Cambridge, Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, summons friend Robert Amiss, former civil servant and sometime sleuth, to attend her elevation to the peerage. Her maiden speech will defend fox hunting, a topic that has inspired heated public debate, threatening letters, and vandalism. When the violence escalates to mass murder, Amiss aids the police. The often acerbic narration, ready wit, strong characterization, and comic emphasis on food make this an appealing follow-up to Matricide at St. Martin's (St. Martin's, 1995).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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