Mon 16 Apr 2018
A 1001 Midnights Review: SARAH CAUDWELL – Thus Was Adonis Murdered.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[8] Comments
by Kathleen L. Maio
SARAH CAUDWELL – Thus Was Adonis Murdered. Hilary Tamar #1. Scribner’s, hardcover, 1981. Penguin, paperback, 1982. First published in the UK: Collins, hardcover, 1981.
In her first mystery novel, Sarah Caudwell provides proof that a Victorian epistolary novel, a mystery in the manner of the Golden Age, and a late-twentieth-century sex farce can all be harmoniously combined in one exceptional novel. But then, no less was expected from the child of British author Claud Cockburn and actress Jean Ross (who was Christopher Isherwood’s model for Sally Bowles).
Caudwell is a barrister, so it is not surprising that the legal profession features prominently in her story. The central character is Julia Larwood, a gifted barrister who is hopeless with the simple details of daily life. She goes on an art lover’s tour of Venice to forget the dunning of the Inland Revenue (her archenemy) and to seduce a beautiful young man or two. Her sexual success (with a taxman, of course!) is quickly followed by disaster: Soon after Julia rises from the bed of her young swain, he is found stabbed to death. Julia, not surprisingly, is arrested.
It is up to her colleagues back at Lincoln’s Inn, notably law professor Hillary Tamar, to find the real killer. Narrative and clues are provided by Tamar and supplemented by various letters, especially those of Julia to her barrister friend Selena. The tone is quasi-Victorian, very British, and highly amusing. The plot is improbable but skillfully handled. The characters are a delight. All in all, Thus Was Adonis Murdered marks a highly impressive debut.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
The Hilary Tamar series —
1. Thus Was Adonis Murdered (1981)
2. The Shortest Way To Hades (1984)
3. The Sirens Sang Of Murder (1989)
4. The Sibyl In Her Grave (2000)
April 16th, 2018 at 9:18 pm
One interesting fact about this series, other than it was far too short for all of Hilary Tamar’s many fans, is that no one knows to this day whether the protagonist is male or female.
April 16th, 2018 at 9:47 pm
I see she died of cancer in 2000, age 60, cutting short her career as an author.
April 17th, 2018 at 6:47 am
I really liked the four Caudwell books.
April 17th, 2018 at 4:38 pm
An excellent series and managing that man books,without revealing the sex of the central detective remains a unique feat. This entry was one of my favorite books of that era.
April 17th, 2018 at 6:51 pm
I wonder if that was deliberate on the part of the author from the very first book. Would have to be, wouldn’t it?
April 18th, 2018 at 1:18 am
An excellent entry in the mostly British dominated epistolary form novel – you can draw a line from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins through Persuasion by Jane Austen to this series. This was one of two memorable novels to come out that year that used the epistolary form – the other being The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 1/2.
The mystery of the protagonist’s gender didn’t strike me as relevant to the quality of the writing (excellent), the interplay between the characters (witty), or the mystery at the core of the story. I got through the series the first time without realizing it at all. Well worth reading; the series was tragically cut short by the author’s untimely death.
April 18th, 2018 at 6:36 am
All four books are available for very low prices on abebooks.com. For instance I ordered the first in the series, THUS WAS ADONIS MURDERED, for only $3.85 which included postage.
April 19th, 2018 at 8:35 am
These are some of my favorite novels. I think Caudwell may have retired the series even if she hadn’t died so young—it wouldn’t have been easy to keep this format fresh. As it is the four perfect books are preserved in amber, so to speak.