Sat 25 Jun 2011
A Review by Ray O’Leary: DOROTHY SIMPSON – Close Her Eyes.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
DOROTHY SIMPSON – Close Her Eyes. Bantam, paperback, 1985. Hardcover edition: Scribner’s, US, 1984. First published in the UK: Michael Joseph, hc, 1984.
Detective Inspector Luke Thanet is called in on his day off when a 15 year old girl is reported missing; Charity Pritchard and her girlfriend were supposed to be at a Youth Hostel while her parents were away, but it seems the girlfriend took ill and Charity… well, she left the girlfriend’s house just minutes before Thanet and Sgt. Lineham showed up looking for her, but an hour later she’s found dead on the shortcut to her house — and evidence turns up that she’s not the Little Innocent everyone took her for.
I sampled Simpson’s Thanet novels years ago, but got so ticked off by Puppet for a Corpse [see below] that I didn’t return to her until just recently. I found this one a pretty decent effort, though the killer was pretty evident from the get-go and I wondered what took Thanet so long to get around to him.
(Why Puppet? WARNING: SOLUTION REVEALED! See Comment #1.)
June 25th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
When I picked PUPPET up and saw the title I wondered if it were one of those Mysteries where a guy commits suicide and tries to make it look like murder, but I thought “Naaah, no one’d be dumb enough to give the solution away in the title…”
June 25th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Before starting a book, I do my best to avoid reading the blurbs on the back cover and the inside dust jacket flaps. Now you’re telling me that you can’t read the title either! Pfui.
Though I’d have to admit that maybe you’re sharper on the get-go than I am, Ray.
Dorothy Simpson wrote 15 books in her Thanet series, but I’ve sampled only a few myself. I’d have put her in the Ngaio Marsh league, if her leading characters were a little more charismatic, perhaps. I think Thanet, from what I remember of him, was a little too generic.
Other than Puppet, her titles were bland too, including the likes of Element of Doubt, Suspicious Death, A Day for Dying, and Last Seen Alive.
June 26th, 2011 at 6:49 am
Jaques Barzun liked her. She’s only in her seventies, but seems to have retired from writing, even though some viewed her as a real up-and-comer.
June 26th, 2011 at 7:00 am
I’ve read all 15 of the Thanet books between 1995 (the first 11) and 2000, so I must have liked them well enough to keep on.
I do agree that Thanet was a bit generic.
August 7th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
My experience of Dorthy Simpson’s books was in the 1980s when they were reasonably new -I read all of them with great enjoyment. Perhaps I’d agree Thanet and family were a little too “normal” but she was probably just following “white hat/black hat” tradition – the Police always had to get the baddie after all, and fairly after due deduction. His sidekick Lineham had a more convoluted and realistic love- and family life. Plots touched on the sort of themes still in use today, naughtiness and family skeletons in the cupboard which I thought quite modern in those days. Her writing style was fluid.
As for titles, it still follows the propensity for two worders as common today. Remember too that often the author’s title choice gets changed by the publishing house; many examples of changes for, say, the US market, only serve to confuse when listed on Amazon and the like.
August 7th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Berengaria
I’ve think you’ve given a nice neat summary of Simpson’s book and her characters. Thanks!