Dr Ruth Dudley Edwards was born and brought up in Dublin, Ireland. Since she graduated she has lived in England, where she has been a teacher, a Cambridge postgraduate student, a marketing executive, a civil servant and, finally, a freelance writer, journalist and broadcaster. An historian and prize-winning biographer, her recent non-fiction includes the authorized history of The Economist, a portrait of the British Foreign Office and a book about the newspaper world of the mid-twentieth century. She uses her knowledge of the British establishment in her satirical crime novels- targets so far include the civil service, gentlemen's clubs, Cambridge colleges, the House of Lords, the Church of England, publishing, literary prizes and - always - political correctness. She has three times been short-listed for awards from the Crime Writers' Association.
Outspoken head of St. Martha's College, Cambridge, Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, summons friend Robert Amiss, former civil servant and sometime sleuth, to attend her elevation to the peerage. Her maiden speech will defend fox hunting, a topic that has inspired heated public debate, threatening letters, and vandalism. When the violence escalates to mass murder, Amiss aids the police. The often acerbic narration, ready wit, strong characterization, and comic emphasis on food make this an appealing follow-up to Matricide at St. Martin's (St. Martin's, 1995).
The sixth Robert Amiss mystery is a wonderful romp set largely among the Lords of Parliament‘either in their chambers or on their estates. The redoubtable Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, Mistress of St. Mary's College, Cambridge (seen in Matricide at St. Martha's), about to be elevated to the House of Lords, imperiously enlists the bookish Amiss to assist her in her latest campaign, namely to defend the ancient British tradition of fox-hunting from an all-out assault by various animal-rights activists. Amiss doesn't quite approve of hunting, but that doesn't deter Troutbeck: "Bugger your moral susceptibilities," she orders, and he does. While the opposition counts among its supporters the likes of Brother Francis (Lord Purseglove), whose vapid nature poetry would embarrass a bunny rabbit, Troutbeck's allies include a couple of boorish lords who must be controlled, while the Rights of Animals League proves a formidable foe. Troutbeck is great fun‘a woman of large and lusty appetites who demolishes arguments or a glass of whisky with equal gusto. Amiss is swept along in her wake as the war of words and wits turns to a murderous assault in the House of Lords that leaves several members dead and others shaken. Edwards ably skewers fox-hunters and anti-fox hunters alike, as well as a slew of other targets in this farcical and appealing mystery. (July)
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