This is the fourth and, very sadly, the last in the Hilary Tamar series. I enjoyed it enormously; as before, the chief delight of the story is in the telling.
Julia’s aunt has a minor tax problem on which she consults Julia, and the usual quartet of young-ish barristers plus Hilary are drawn into a strange web of dodgy psychics, insider dealing, possible poisoning and mysterious deaths. I found the plot rather weaker than in the previous books, but I didn’t care at all. Hilary’s narrative voice is as enjoyable as ever, with its wit, pomposity and self-delusion (or at least self-exculpation), and the usual communications by letter of events elsewhere are equally well done. The dialogue is invariably brilliant (I’m a particular devotee of Selena’s searching and acerbic wit) and the whole thing is a delight.
Sarah Caudwell’s books for me stand with those of P.G. Wodehouse, Damon Runyon and Flann O’Brien; the prose in all of them makes me laugh out loud, no matter what the story. I can give them no higher praise and recommend all of them very warmly.
No comments:
Post a Comment