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A review by brontebabeblog
The Case of the Missing Brontë by Robert Barnard
3.0
The Case of the Missing Brontë was originally published as The Missing Brontë in 1983. It is part of a series featuring the detective Perry Trethowan. This book sees Perry and his wife, Jan, meeting an old woman named Edith Wing in a Yorkshire pub when their car breaks down on their return to their London home after a visit to Perry’s Northumberland family estate. Wing claims she has a possible lost Brontë manuscript in her possession which was inherited from her cousin after her recent death. She believes it may be Emily Brontë's lost second novel.
After Wing is attacked and the manuscript is stolen, Perry finds himself in the middle of an international crime ring involving a couple of Norwegian heavies, an American dealer/collector of priceless British objects, a bizarre English librarian, a strange transatlantic preacher, and a rather stuffy Professor of English at a rundown Yorkshire university. He encounters all of these characters during his quest to solve the mystery of the lost manuscript.
The overall result is a mixed bag. There are some good points and nice touches in there such as the initial references to the Brontës and Perry’s wry humour. Unfortunately, as the Brontë references were left behind, so was my interest in the novel. The plot plods on although both Perry and the reader know who is responsible. There are no twists and turns, and no real excitement. Even the motives of those involved seem half-hearted. One plot line left technically resolved but which remains unsatisfying is the relationship between Wing and a teenager named Jason. I thought Barnard could have done a lot more with this.
You’re not missing anything if you decided to give this one a miss. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I just got a little bored with the slow and predictable plot and the lack of Brontë material despite its title. I have high expectations of anything that cashes in on the Brontës, and for me, this didn’t quite work because it didn’t have enough of the Brontës to keep me interested as I had picked the text up expecting it to focus on the family’s history in some way in order to solve the mystery at the heart of the novel.
You can find more about this book on my blog: https://brontebabeblog.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/the-case-of-the-missing-bronte-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-holiday-read/
After Wing is attacked and the manuscript is stolen, Perry finds himself in the middle of an international crime ring involving a couple of Norwegian heavies, an American dealer/collector of priceless British objects, a bizarre English librarian, a strange transatlantic preacher, and a rather stuffy Professor of English at a rundown Yorkshire university. He encounters all of these characters during his quest to solve the mystery of the lost manuscript.
The overall result is a mixed bag. There are some good points and nice touches in there such as the initial references to the Brontës and Perry’s wry humour. Unfortunately, as the Brontë references were left behind, so was my interest in the novel. The plot plods on although both Perry and the reader know who is responsible. There are no twists and turns, and no real excitement. Even the motives of those involved seem half-hearted. One plot line left technically resolved but which remains unsatisfying is the relationship between Wing and a teenager named Jason. I thought Barnard could have done a lot more with this.
You’re not missing anything if you decided to give this one a miss. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I just got a little bored with the slow and predictable plot and the lack of Brontë material despite its title. I have high expectations of anything that cashes in on the Brontës, and for me, this didn’t quite work because it didn’t have enough of the Brontës to keep me interested as I had picked the text up expecting it to focus on the family’s history in some way in order to solve the mystery at the heart of the novel.
You can find more about this book on my blog: https://brontebabeblog.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/the-case-of-the-missing-bronte-and-the-search-for-the-perfect-holiday-read/