- Gebundene Ausgabe: 320 Seiten
- Verlag: Collins Crime (15. Juni 1998)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0002325586
- ISBN-13: 978-0002325585
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 5.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (1 Kundenrezension)
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There's a wonderfully sly, almost mocking overtone to this middle part of a mystery trilogy by British master Andrew Taylor. As the narrator--a pompous, self-pitying clergyman named David Byfield--says about a dinner engagement: "As a consequence of my accepting their invitation, two people died, a third went to prison, and a fourth was admitted to a hospital for the insane." No beating about the bush there, or anywhere else in this story set in 1970 (25 years before the events of The Four Last Things, the first book in Taylor's trilogy about a fictional London suburb called Roth). The Judgement of Strangers helps explain what happens in the first book, but also stands on its own as a mordant mystery about sexual repression.
Byfield, a handsome widower with a psychologically fragile teenaged daughter, stirs up trouble with his attention to several women, all of whom pay a much higher price than he does. By making Byfield such a dolt, Taylor lets us sympathize with even the most odious of his conquests--Audrey, the obsessed local historian and operator of the world's nastiest teashop. "I watched the excitement draining from Audrey's face like water from a bath," Byfield tells us. "I felt ashamed of myself and also irritated with her. Why did she insist on calling Roth a village? It was a suburb of London, similar in all essentials to a dozen others. Most of its inhabitants had their real lives elsewhere. In Roth they merely serviced their bodily needs, watched television and on Sundays played golf or cleaned their Ford Cortinas." Book three promises to go back even further in time and tell us how Byfield's first wife died. --Dick Adler -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
From Kirkus Reviews
Twenty-five years before Michael Appleyard's daughter was kidnapped in The Four Last Things (1997), the pre-teen Michael spent the summer of 1970 visiting his godfather David Byfield, the vicar of Roth. Michael wasn't to know that the events of the summer, David's first with his second wife, publisher Vanessa Forde, would run the gamut from adultery to drug dealing to madness to murder, all evidently presided over by the ghost of the Rev. Francis Youlgreave, the mad poet-priest who communed with dark powers and mutilated animals before he was carried to his grave beneath the vicarage chancel. Writing from the lusty, repressed vicar's point of view, Taylor cloaks all the horrid doings in prose as stately and deliberate as Dorothy Sayers's in The Nine Tailors: The first time I kissed Joanna was late in the afternoon of Monday, 24th August. Yet despite portentous foreshadowing out of the Had-I-But-Known school and endless episodes of kissus interruptus, the sense of foul menace mounts to a fine frenzy as David dallies with bored newcomer Joanna Clifford, outraged tearoom historian Audrey Oliphant mourns her beheaded cat, and the villagers punctuate their preparations for the climactic village fete by speculating about what might have happened to village doyenne Lady Youlgreave, mad Francis's horribly dead niece. A superior village mystery that whets the appetite for the promised third volume. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
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Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
In the 1970 London suburb of Roth, David Byfield, a widowed minister with a daughter (Rosemary), has just married Vanessa. The occupants (including his godson) of the Byfield home, which happens to be the village vicarage, struggle to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of one another. However, the townsfolk are frightened over a series of mutilation murders, including the killing of a cat, Lord Peter.
The Byfields try to pretend that life goes on in spite of the recent events. David works on an upcoming church event. Vanessa researches the dead poet Father Francis Youlgreave, who once stirred up local society. Rosemary seems attracted to a newcomer. However, another resident Audrey Oliphant begins to investigate who had killed her feline.
The second novel in the Roth trilogy is a clever tale that actually is the prequel to events of the first book (see THE FOUR LAST THINGS) as it provides background information to the previous novel. In the hands of a lesser writer, this approach would be a disastrous failure. However, the dexterous Andrew Taylor not only makes it work, he effortlessly provides his readers with loads of suspense and fabulous characters that leave the audience shocked by the sheer brilliance. One does not need to have read the first story to fully gain pleasure from THE JUDGEMENT OF STRANGERS, but this reviewer recommends fans of English cozies to peruse both novels for double the enjoyment.
Harriet Klausner
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6 von 6 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Where's Miss Marple when you need her?
18. Mai 2007
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
This is a relatively slow-moving "mystery" in which the puzzling murder of a cat comprises the "mystery" for the vast bulk of the book. However, the end of the book is full of mayhem, murder, & mystery--a great surprise to me. Though referred to by the author as the 2nd book in the Roth trilogy, a prequel to the 1st book, it doesn't explain very much IMHO. While there are numerous characters who also appear in the 1st book (e.g. Michael Appleyard), they could have been anyone--there's very little continuity. The main character in book 2, David Byfield, is a minor player in book 1, though some of the events of book 2 no doubt contributed to his personality (or lack thereof) in book 1. However, there ARE some striking similarities between the two books such as the author's treatment of Anglican clerics (not very gently & not very kindly); there is a dearth of spirituality in both books. I suspect that the greater value of these works may lie in the trilogy as a whole vs. the individual books--literary synergy. Still, this one is an easy read (though perhaps a bit depressing) & certainly has a shocking ending. The author also provides some interesting insights into human nature: p. 126: "It is chillingly easy to repeat our mistakes.
p. 285: There comes a point when punishing yourself becomes a purely self-indulgent exercise.
p. 286: Very good people can be as ruthless as very bad people" & provides references & a parallel with Agatha Christie & her Miss Marple.
p. 285: There comes a point when punishing yourself becomes a purely self-indulgent exercise.
p. 286: Very good people can be as ruthless as very bad people" & provides references & a parallel with Agatha Christie & her Miss Marple.
2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Desires and decisions
22. Dezember 2009
Format:Taschenbuch
Readers of The Four Last Things, the first book in Andrew Taylor's Roth Trilogy, know how Rosemary Byfield turned out, but to know why, it's necessary to delve into the prequel, The Judgement of Strangers. The Reverend David Byfield is a bit player in TFLT, but in Strangers, he takes center stage. Byfield is a priest who's skating on thin ice. He's been celibate for ten years, since his wife died, but by now he's almost desperate for sex. His judgement is badly impaired by his desires, and Rosemary, his teenaged daughter, is badly in need of a level of attention and guidance that her father is not prepared to provide. David has retreated to a country parish after committing an undisclosed trangression while teaching in London. Not all of his current parishioners are, shall we say, in their right minds, and matters slowly but surely spin out of control.
Author Taylor is a master at character development, his plots evolving from the strengths and weaknesses of his protagonists. His characters are people we've all met before, incorporating facets of our own personalities, making it easy to empathize with their choices and decisions. Readers who enjoy getting lost simple yet enthralling plots are sure to enjoy this trilogy.
Author Taylor is a master at character development, his plots evolving from the strengths and weaknesses of his protagonists. His characters are people we've all met before, incorporating facets of our own personalities, making it easy to empathize with their choices and decisions. Readers who enjoy getting lost simple yet enthralling plots are sure to enjoy this trilogy.
8 von 11 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Terrific read
28. Oktober 1998
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
In the 1970 London suburb of Roth, David Byfield, a widowed minister with a daughter (Rosemary), has just married Vanessa. The occupants (including his godson) of the Byfield home, which happens to be the village vicarage, struggle to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of one another. However, the townsfolk are frightened over a series of mutilation murders, including the killing of a cat, Lord Peter.
The Byfields try to pretend that life goes on in spite of the recent events. David works on an upcoming church event. Vanessa researches the dead poet Father Francis Youlgreave, who once stirred up local society. Rosemary seems attracted to a newcomer. However, another resident Audrey Oliphant begins to investigate who had killed her feline.
The second novel in the Roth trilogy is a clever tale that actually is the prequel to events of the first book (see THE FOUR LAST THINGS) as it provides background information to the previous novel. In the hands of a lesser writer, this approach would be a disastrous failure. However, the dexterous Andrew Taylor not only makes it work, he effortlessly provides his readers with loads of suspense and fabulous characters that leave the audience shocked by the sheer brilliance. One does not need to have read the first story to fully gain pleasure from THE JUDGEMENT OF STRANGERS, but this reviewer recommends fans of English cozies to peruse both novels for double the enjoyment.
Harriet Klausner
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