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A review by cmbohn
With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare
4.0
I love a good old-fashioned mystery, complete with amateur sleuth and a small set of suspects. Add in a little romance and an impossible crime, and that’s a recipe for a very pleasant afternoon. My problem is that I’m starting to run out of Golden Age era books. I’ve read the whole Agatha Christie catalog, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Patricia Wentworth.
This book, by English writer, lawyer, and civil servant Cyril Hare, introduced a whole new set of characters. I loved the setting too, the British government bureaucracy during World War Two. It reminded me a bit of Foyle’s War.
Francis Pettigrew is a lawyer (or solicitor or barrister – I can’t remember) who is called up to serve as legal counsel for some ridiculous wartime agency. Apparently everyone in the agency has to room together too, so it doesn’t take long before they’re all tired of each other. But when a harmless secretary is murdered, Pettigrew is the one determined to find out why. This was a fun book, maybe 3.5 stars, that made me smile more than once.
This book, by English writer, lawyer, and civil servant Cyril Hare, introduced a whole new set of characters. I loved the setting too, the British government bureaucracy during World War Two. It reminded me a bit of Foyle’s War.
Francis Pettigrew is a lawyer (or solicitor or barrister – I can’t remember) who is called up to serve as legal counsel for some ridiculous wartime agency. Apparently everyone in the agency has to room together too, so it doesn’t take long before they’re all tired of each other. But when a harmless secretary is murdered, Pettigrew is the one determined to find out why. This was a fun book, maybe 3.5 stars, that made me smile more than once.