Death on the Cherwell

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Title:

Death on the Cherwell

Author:

Hay, Mavis

Subject:

Historical Fiction

Classic Literature

Mystery

Fiction

Description:

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder"Hay, who also wrote Murder Underground, crafted a witty and sometimes scathing account of women at Oxford at a time when they were only grudgingly accepted." —BooklistFor Miss Cordell, principal of Persephone College, there are two great evils to be feared: unladylike behavior among her students, and bad publicity for the college. So her prim and cozy world is turned upside down when a secret society of undergraduates meets by the river on a gloomy January afternoon, only to find the drowned body of the college bursar floating in her canoe.The police assume that a student prank got out of hand, but the resourceful Persephone girls suspect foul play, and take the investigation into their own hands. Soon they uncover the tangled secrets that led to the bursar's death—and the clues that point to a fellow student.This classic mystery novel, with its evocative setting in an Oxford women's college, is now republished for the first time since the 1930s, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Stephen Booth.

Publisher:

Poisoned Pen Press

Sourcebooks

Date:

2016/10/04

Digital Format:

ePub

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Kindle

Language:

English

Summary

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder

"Hay, who also wrote Murder Underground, crafted a witty and sometimes scathing account of women at Oxford at a time when they were only grudgingly accepted." --Booklist

For Miss Cordell, principal of Persephone College, there are two great evils to be feared: unladylike behavior among her students, and bad publicity for the college. So her prim and cozy world is turned upside down when a secret society of undergraduates meets by the river on a gloomy January afternoon, only to find the drowned body of the college bursar floating in her canoe.

The police assume that a student prank got out of hand, but the resourceful Persephone girls suspect foul play, and take the investigation into their own hands. Soon they uncover the tangled secrets that led to the bursar's death--and the clues that point to a fellow student.

This classic mystery novel, with its evocative setting in an Oxford women's college, is now republished for the first time since the 1930s, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Stephen Booth.

Author Notes

MAVIS DORIEL HAY (1894-1979) was a novelist of the golden age of British crime fiction. Her three detective novels were published in the 1930s and have now been reintroduced to modern readers by the British Library.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Four high-spirited undergrads investigate the death of their schools bursar.When Sally Watson, Daphne Loveridge, Gwyneth Pane, and Nina Harson gather on the roof of Persephone Colleges boathouse to form the Lode League for the express purpose of cursing their bursar for blighting their life with petty economies, the last thing they expect is for her to be plucked immediately from their midst. But as they recite the poems and prepare to exchange the rings that constitute their initiation rite, a canoe carrying the bursars body floats down the Cherwell below them. After pulling the late Myra Denning from the boat and notifying Miss Cordrell, their principal, they retire to Daphnes room to toast crumpets and discuss a new purpose for their group: to unmask the bursars killer. Scorning the efforts of Inspector Wythe of the local police, they interview Draga Czernak, the excitable Yugoslavian student who was probably the last to see the victim alive, and tromp across the grounds of Ferry House, a nearby estate owned by misogynistic Ezekiel Lond and coveted by the bursar and the principal for possible expansion. Characteristically, the girls show almost no interest in asking who might have wanted to kill Myra Denning, referring to her exclusively by her title and never by name. Like so much else in their lives, the bursars death gives the girls the chance for a lark and an opportunity to show the world how clever they are. Light on puzzle and detection, this reprint of Hays 1935 tale is probably of greatest interest as a historical totem. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

A group of undergraduates at a women's college at Oxford University in the 1930s meet on a winter's day on top of a boathouse next to the River Cherwell. They're meeting to form a club dedicated to the destruction of the detested bursar of Persephone College, Myra Denning. As they plot, a canoe drifts up, containing the drowned body of the bursar. Was the bursar's death accidental, the result of a prank gone awry, or cold-blooded murder? The members of the club decide they must investigate before word of their suspicious-sounding club leaks out. The result is a wonderful one of us may be the murderer tangle, encompassing fraud and passion in the college itself. Hay, who also wrote Murder Underground (1934), crafted a witty and sometimes scathing account of women at Oxford at a time when they were only grudgingly accepted. As Stephen Booth points out in his introduction, Hay's novel was published the same year (1935) as Dorothy L. Sayers' Oxford-centered Gaudy Night. Another worthy rerelease in the British Library Crime Classics series.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2016 Booklist

Summary

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Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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