Synopses & Reviews
Review
In the month or so since Teri began this thread, I've tried several authors new to me and recommended at various times on DorothyL. Far and away the best find was Nora Kelly's IN THE SHADOW OF KING'S, the first in a series featuring Gillian Adams, a Canadian history professor on sabbatical in England in this one. As she prepares to deliver a guest lecture at Cambridge, there's an absolutely wonderful description of her listeners:
"The audience shuffled towards the plastic chairs, the older members occupying the seats at the front. Rows of faces seamed with age, bodies bent and crabbed with disuse, bald heads, liver spots, and myopia confronted Gillian. Dressed like scarecrows, but clothed in wisdom, the venerable historians of Cambridge awaited her words."
Unfortunately only #1 and #4 are currently in print, with #2 and #3 to be reissued over the next few months. As I prefer to read in order, guess I'll just have to wait.
-- Margaret Carroll
Synopsis
Alistair Greenwood, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, has not just grown accustomed to the glories of the university and its superb architecture. Rather, he believes he transcends them in his person and in his faultless 17th Century home. Yet it's not easy to live in the shadow of perfection. Cracks appear at a Greenwood luncheon made as shattering by the incompatability of the guests as by the arrogance of the host. Gillian Adams, an American scholar revisiting the university while on sabbatical from Vancouver, finds the occasion distasteful, but she becomes involved when the eminent professor is gunned down the next day while listening to her opening lecture.
This debut novel is polished in its plotting and its prose and beautifully depicts Cambridge, that ancient seat of learning the author describes as "a very particular distillation of the beauties and horrors of life in England". It's a view Dorothy L. Sayers took years ago of Oxford when writing Gaudy Night.
Synopsis
Alistair Greenwood, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, hosts a luncheon at his faultless 17th Century home. Its perfection is marred by the incompatability of the guests and the arrogance of the host. Gillian Adams, an American scholar revisiting the unversity while on sabbatical from Vancouver, finds it distasteful, but she's truly appalled when the eminent Greenwood is gunned down the next day while listening to her lecture. Involved as a witness, she's also hooked into the case by her friendship with Edward Gisborne of the Yard, who had come to hear her and remains to capture Greenwood's killer....
This debut novel, first published in 1983, is polished in its plotting and its prose and beautifully depicts Cambridge, doing for that ""ancient seat of learning what Dorothy L. Sayers did long ago for Oxford in Gaudy Night.""