Family Matters
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"A deliciously anti-cozy tale of murder most multiplied..." —Kirkus Reviews
Robert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artifacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs. Robert's wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public. Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering. Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams in their peaceful hometown Shufflecester.
Everything is wrong—and with the entrance of John Harrigall, a bohemian bachelor from London who catches Bertha's eye, they take a turn for the worse. Soon deep passions and resentments shatter the calm facade of the Kewdinghams' lives.
This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fans of golden-age cozies will be delighted by this engrossing mystery, first published in 1933, from Rolls (the pseudonym of C.E. Vulliamy). The opening sections of this British Library Crime Classics reissue portray the unsettled household of the Kewdingham family in the town of Shufflecester. Most of the stress stems from the family's eccentric and aggravating patriarch, Robert, who has found himself at loose ends after being let go from his position as an engineer after more than two decades. Instead of looking for new work, however, Robert has spent his time collecting junk and broadcasting his belief that he once lived in Atlantis. Concise but evocative word-pictures of the characters enhance the plot. For example, a doctor speaks with "a studied modulation, picking his words in a delicate though snappy fashion, like a smart little bird picking up grains on the tin floor of a cage." Although Rolls (Scarweather) takes his time building up to the murder, he rewards readers' patience with a clever and satisfying resolution.
