Hard Going

By: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Narrated by: Terry Wale

The late Mr Lionel Bygood, who looks, to all intents and purposes, like an old-fashioned sort of gentleman, has been bashed in the head with a bronze statue, in what Doc Cameron describes as 'our old friend the Frenzied Attack'.

It soon emerges that Mr Bygood was a philanthropist, well-known locally for giving help and advice to all who needed it, from all walks of life. But with all signs pointing to the victim knowing his killer, Bill Slider and his team find themselves embroiled in an investigation that provides scant evidence or possible motive, but all too many suspects....

©2013 Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (P)2014 Soundings

Attitudes

The theme throughout the book seemed to be attitudes. The victim's attitude toward people living on the fringes of society seemed to be central to the plot. The attitudes of other people toward the victim's attitude complicated the matter. And our main character had to face his own attitude toward the icky idea of one's parent moving on and finding intimacy with someone new. I always enjoy this author's writing with her puns, malapropisms, and other word games woven into the dialogue. I "read" her novels on Audibles, and often find myself jumping back to listen again to a section I may have been distracted from listening to intently, and always find that indeed, I did miss something! I would give the book itself 5 stars but the narrator's voice sounds all wrong for this series. He sounds older and fussier and not at all like one would expect the voice of the main characters whose stories this is ought to sound.