This isn’t a conventional murder mystery – we know from the outset who the murderer is – but more of a character study of the murderer. He is Dr. Bickleigh, a GP in a West Country village, who pursues local women in the belief that he is genuinely in love with each...until the next comes along. His stern and overbearing wife becomes an insurmountable obstacle to his supposed happiness and his homicidal plans begin to take shape.
It’s an excellent beginning; Francis Iles (a pseudonym for Anthony Berkeley) writes with real wit and his intimate portrayal of Bickleigh’s internal thoughts and state of mind is shrewd and very well done. He also paints waspish portraits of the village’s other residents, which works well for a while, but seemed a good deal less original to me, in that it’s been done by a good many other writers of that age and since. The parade of sexist – even misogynistic – stereotypes which form his female characters became rather too much for me, as each one is portrayed as having at least one clichéd supposed defect of her gender to make her contemptible in some way: gossipy, bitchy, overbearing, timid, clingy, stand-offish, unintelligent snobbish...and so on. Particularly coupled with a long, slow examination of Bickleigh’s thought processes, I struggled with the middle part of the book.
The later part did pick up very well, though, with a police investigation and some very well done courtroom scenes. I didn’t enjoy this as much as others have done, but it does have its merits and may well be worth a try.
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