Book Review: Debts of Dishonor

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Debts of Dishonor     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jill Paton Walsh
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Imogen Quy
Hodder & Stoughton, $24.95 trade paperback, 264 pages

St. Agatha’s, a small college of Cambridge University, invites one of its richest but less distinguished alumni to dine at High Table in hopes of encouraging an endowment out of him. Sir Julius Farran made his first million whilst still an undergraduate. Now the fabulously wealthy head of the Farran Financial Group, he’s made his share of enemies over the years. The dinner is a complete disaster for everyone involved except Imogen Quy, St. Agatha’s nurse: Farran invites her to come work for him in the personnel department.

She declines, but when Farran dies suddenly under peculiar, if not immediately suspicious circumstances, she finds herself drawn into an investigation. And when a second death, this one definitely a murder, takes place, Imogen must discover what has been happening. For both these deaths have uncovered a dreadful situation that threatens St. Agatha’s financial survival. Aided, if not admirably, by her erstwhile lover Andrew Duncombe, Imogen does her level best to uncover the mystery of Sir Julius’s death and the murder of his son-in-law.

Readers might know Walsh as the co-author of two books with Dorothy L. Sayers, whose unfinished manuscripts Walsh took on. I hadn’t realized that Walsh had written other mysteries. Debts of Dishonour is the third Imogen Quy (rhymes with “why”) novel, and the second in the series was nominated for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award. I don’t see why this one shouldn’t also be nominated. Walsh has written a mystery that harks back to the Golden Age of British crime writing, yet is thoroughly modern at the same time. Imogen herself is a combination of practicality and intuition. Debts of Dishonour is a satisfying read.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM

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