A Poor Church Mouse Spinster From Town
A review by By Miranda Joyce Childe
If you are a fan of classics British mysteries as penned by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham, but you have read all their novels at least twice, Salima Nazzal is a name you should get to know. She will pump some fresh blood into your tired library. While a newcomer to the popular genre, Nazzal has the form down pat. She not only gets the diction and idiom right, but The Folly Under the Lake also offers the familiar eccentric characters, irresistibly quirky setting and enough red herrings to keep you guessing all the way through. I was sure I had divined the culprit at least three times, and each time I was wrong.
Among the guests at the proverbial weekend gathering, we find the down and out relatives hoping to convince the wealthy investor to purchase their jewels; the grieving widowed cousin, just back from the States; a poor church mouse spinster from town; two spoiled children, and, of course, a handsome stranger from nobody knows where exactly, among others. Do these characters sound familiar? They are of a sort we have met before, yet Nazzal has added enough spice to each one so they do not feel tiresome to the British cozy lover.
Finally, my favorite part is the eponymous “Folly under the Lake.” While the setting is a typically beautiful, and isolated, English manor house, Nazzal has added a fully furnished gentleman’s room which has been built, by ingenious engineering, entirely under water. It is made mostly of glass, so the fish can be seen swimming around the inhabitants. This folly plays an important part in the murder. I found the device entirely ingenious.
I found this book thoroughly entertaining and very true to the genre from which Nazzal received her inspiration. In the interest of full disclosure, I received the book as an Early Reviewer from LibraryThing, and I look forward to reading more from this author.
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