Scan barcode
cmbohn's review
3.0
I always enjoy mysteries with a Shakespearian twist. This one had a cover with "Macbeth" written on a paper. Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, so I was really excited to find this one at the library.
Unfortunately, there's only a very slim link to the Scottish play. An Oxford don named Patrick Grant is looking forward to seeing a friend play Macduff, but instead an understudy takes the role and his friend is a no show. Then he learns that the friend is dead by suicide. Grant, who has investigated crimes before, looks into the death. He can't accept it as suicide. As he follows the leads, he discovers art fraud and espionage.
The ending was a little hard to follow and not very convincing. I don't know if I've read any in this series before, but her book "No Medals for the Major" is excellent. Read that instead, but if you do, don't read the preface to this book first, because it gives the ending away.
Unfortunately, there's only a very slim link to the Scottish play. An Oxford don named Patrick Grant is looking forward to seeing a friend play Macduff, but instead an understudy takes the role and his friend is a no show. Then he learns that the friend is dead by suicide. Grant, who has investigated crimes before, looks into the death. He can't accept it as suicide. As he follows the leads, he discovers art fraud and espionage.
The ending was a little hard to follow and not very convincing. I don't know if I've read any in this series before, but her book "No Medals for the Major" is excellent. Read that instead, but if you do, don't read the preface to this book first, because it gives the ending away.
bvlawson's review
3.0
Although most of British author Margaret Yorke's novels were standalone works of suspense, in 1970 she created her one serial protagonist, Oxford English literature don and amateur sleuth Dr. Patrick Grant, who appeared in five total novels including "Silent Witness" (1972), "Grave Matters" (1973), "Mortal Remains" (1974) and "Cast for Death" (1975). Yorke chose the fictional St. Mark's College as Grant's employer and often called on her own job as a college librarian for setting and character details.
Yorke's novel "Cast for Death" is the final installment featuring the handsome, absent-minded professor Grant, who has a habit of quoting Shakespeare. In fact, Yorke herself once admitted she was "nutty about Shakespeare and mad about "Macbeth." The plot centers on the death of actor Sam Irwin, whose body is discovered in the River Thames, an apparent suicide. Grant, who is a friend of Irwin, doesn't buy the suicide angle. After all, why would Irwin have taken his own life shortly before opening in a new play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford?
In pursuing the truth, Grant links seemingly unconnected events including the death of a dog, a second suicide and a series of art robberies. Ultimately, Grant's very life is threatened in a denouement concert at the Festival Hall after he uncovers a deception of theatrical proportions. But Grant's personal philosophy drives him in his quest, mirroring a quote from Edmund Burke used toward the end of the novel, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Yorke's novel "Cast for Death" is the final installment featuring the handsome, absent-minded professor Grant, who has a habit of quoting Shakespeare. In fact, Yorke herself once admitted she was "nutty about Shakespeare and mad about "Macbeth." The plot centers on the death of actor Sam Irwin, whose body is discovered in the River Thames, an apparent suicide. Grant, who is a friend of Irwin, doesn't buy the suicide angle. After all, why would Irwin have taken his own life shortly before opening in a new play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford?
In pursuing the truth, Grant links seemingly unconnected events including the death of a dog, a second suicide and a series of art robberies. Ultimately, Grant's very life is threatened in a denouement concert at the Festival Hall after he uncovers a deception of theatrical proportions. But Grant's personal philosophy drives him in his quest, mirroring a quote from Edmund Burke used toward the end of the novel, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
More...