Review: A Man of Some Repute

A Man of Some Repute by Elizabeth Edmondson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Hugo Hawksworth is invalided out of the Secret Service with a bullet to the leg, he is transferred to the Service's facility at Selchester where he fully expects to be bored to tears and hand in his resignation, a life of pen pushing after travelling the world surviving on his wits seems like a dull choice.

His boss, Sir Bernard, has secured lodgings for Hugo and his younger sister Georgia at Selchester Castle. Sir Bernard is a trustee since Lord Selchester disappeared in a blizzard in 1947 and hasn't been seen since.

Shortly after Hugo and Georgia move in with the housekeeper Mrs Partridge and Lord Selchester's niece Freya, a broken pipe leads to the shocking discovery of a skeleton under the slabs in the Old Chapel. It seems that Lord Selchester did not disappear, he was murdered.

The local police seem very keen to place the blame on Lord Selchester's son, who had an argument with his father and stormed out the night of the blizzard, but Tom was killed in the war so can not defend himself. The police are also inclined to think that Freya may have aided and abetted her cousin although charges are unlikely to be brought given the main suspect is dead. Hugo suspects that Lord Selchester's war work may have something to do with Special Branch leaning on the local police to close the case quickly.

Freya and Hugo are determined to clear Tom's name, with Georgia's precocious help, but what unfolds about the late Lord Selchester turns out to be scandal of the highest order.

I rather enjoyed this, the isolated country house murder, spiced up with a bit of cold war communist fear-mongering and small town gossiping. I've already downloaded and read the second book.

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