Oxford Mourning: A Kate Ivory Mystery

By Veronica Stallwood

Book Overview

When novelist Kate Ivory first meets Dr Olivia Blacket, an academic at Leicester College, Oxford, the atmosphere is far from amicable. Olivia refuses to show Kate the fascinating material she is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684197308
• ISBN13: 9780684197302
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 197 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A pleasant diversion

Oxford Mourning is the perfect companion for a cold, winter afternoon, when your body is weary from a morning of sledding with the kids, and your mind, while alert, is not quite up to the task of too challenging a read. Partway through this short, tight mystery, I realized that Stallwood's attention to her characters was somewhat reminiscent of Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell's marvelous psychological studies masquerading as whodunnits. I say somewhat because Vine/Rendell is a master of the genre, whereas Stallwood is more of a reasonably apt pupil. Two Kate Ivory mysteries preceded this one, but I have not yet read them. That said, let me note that, in Oxford Mourning, the secondary characters of "the family" are more vividly portrayed than the sleuth herself. Not at all a disappointing way to spend a few hours, though.