There was an unintentional theme to the weekend’s literary pages: murder, in some shape or form. There are fictions, histories and real life whodunits to choose from, if crime is your guilty pleasure.
First up: Death in Perguia, a comprehensive account of the Kercher case written by the Sunday Times’ John Follain, who covered the investigation and trials for that paper. Stephen Robinson reviewed the book for the Sunday Times (£) and observes that Follain ‘has produced an excellent account of the tragedy and the very Italian drama that followed.’
That ‘very Italian drama’ is one of wild incompetence, brazen conspiracy theories and wrongful arrests, coloured by the titillating mixture of promiscuity, drugs and the sultry decay of Perugia. Robinson says that Follain’s book, for all its narrative qualities, does not analyse the effects of that disorder, or offer opinions about it. This, Robinson implies, means that Follain’s account is not quite definitive.
The same could not be said of French novelist Jean Tuelé’s latest book, Eat Him If You Like. The novel retells the horrific death of Alain de Monéys, a nineteenth century French landowner who was tortured, burned and finally eaten by a braying drunken crowd at a village fête in the Dordogne in 1870. Think of that the next time you’re caravanning in the area and stop at a roadside brasserie.
Pemberley, the fictional home of Mr and Mrs Darcy, is next to the Dordogne in some romantic English hearts. P.D. James, an admirer of Jane Austen, has written a sequel to Pride and Prejudice; but, as one might have expected from the grande dame of crime fiction, Pemberley is not a sugared memorial to the original. There are glimpses of life below stairs and the enduring themes of her crime fiction mill about in the great house, which dominates the novel just as it is supposed to dominate the landscape. And, of course, there is a body. Despite the prevalence of those personal traits, Baroness James is confident she will not fall foul of the ‘Janes’. She told the Times (£) that she is confident she has “done violence to Austen or her characters”.
Another of P.D. James’ passions is M.R. James, author of some of the most chilling ghost stories in English. A new edition of his collected short stories has just been published and, as Tim Martin has noted in the Telegraph, they continue to resonate with the modern reader, despite being set in the world of Edwardian antiquarians. ‘Number 13’, for instance, tells of the timeless fear of staying the night in a secluded place, with only your imagination and flawed senses for company. It is singularly unnerving: recalling it made the hairs on the back of my neck bristle momentarily.
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