Stunning Belrive Priory, consisting of a mansion, park and medieval ruins, is surrounded by the noise and neon signs of its gaudy neighbours - a cotton-mill, a brewey and a main road. Nevertheless, Arthur Ferryman is pleased to return for a family Christmas, but is shocked to discover that his cousins have taken up a new pastime - pistol-shooting.
Inspector Appleby arrives on the scene when one of Ferryman's cousins is found shot dead in the study, in a mystery built on family antagonisms.
I borrowed this at my library because no reader borrowed it and I wanted to find out why - at first sight, it looked rather good ? This was book #6 in a series, but often time, you don't need to have read the rest to understand the story.
Now, I know. It's dull, the characters are pedantic and I simply couldn't finish it. I tried !
It starts in a way that made me think about the Victorian period with industries surrounding an old upper class estate, the upper class feeling superior comparing to the middle class, yet the middle class gaining more money than them and gaining entry into their society while they despise them. Then followed too numerous pages with a gathering of pedantic parasites who played intellectual games without doing much of their lives. They bickered, they were all insufferable, you could see the plot coming from very far away - no orignality. I thought maybe when the murder was committed, it would be better ? Nope. Same, you see it coming from far away.
I tried to keep up until the middle of the book and then, finally, I gave up ! Some books and authors are forgotten, but there's a reason why.
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