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Honey ([personal profile] bookfrog) wrote2009-02-26 08:36 pm
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The Sirens Sang of Murder, Sarah Caudwell

The trouble with real life is that you don't know whether you're the hero or just some nice chap who gets bumped off in chapter five to show what a rotter the villain is without anyone minding too much.

So much for slowing down on these. I guess I'll have to find copies for myself, too..

Okay, so Professor Tamar's friend Michael Cantrip has been called to advise on a tax matter (which upsets his friend Julia, who actually works in tax law). The whole thing is about a trust which was so cleverly written that nobody has any idea who the beneficiary is supposed to be. When one of the trust people is murdered, Cantrip's friends begin to worry about him, especially as it seems he has disappeared.

One of the best things about this novel is that a lot of it is told in the form of faxes from Cantrip to Julia, and his voice is really fun to read. Kind of like Bertie Wooster, only less boring and funnier.

Excerpt:
Look here, Larwood, what I want to know is why birds nowadays aren't like they used to be in the old days. Yielding is what birds were in the old days, and what I specially like about birds being yielding is that they can't start being it till they've jolly well got something to yield to, viz they jolly well wait to be asked.