Sun 22 Nov 2009
A Review by Maryell Cleary: PATRICIA MOYES – Death on the Agenda.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
PATRICIA MOYES – Death on the Agenda. Collins Crime Club, UK, hardcover, 1962. Holt Rinehart & Winston, US, hc, 1962. Paperback reprint: Owl Books, 1984.
Moyes is a dependable writer; her protagonists, Henry and Emmy Tibbett, are solid and capable, though happily not past a little flightiness now and then.
This time they’re in Geneva for a meeting of the Permanent Central Opium Board. The cast is international; the scene is Switzerland, both its wealth and its natural beauties playing a part in the story.
One of the interpreters, John Trapp, is found murdered in one of the offices of the subcommittee Henry is chairing, under circumstances which make Henry the obvious choice as murderer.
Intrigue about the drug traffic and intrigue about love make the motive hard to determine. Opportunity is even worse, for scarcely anyone but Henry could have done it, so it seems.
The Tibbetts get to know one of the wealthiest couples in Geneva, and Henry has a belated fling with a lovely young staff member of the subcommittee. Once again Henry and Emmy emerge as real and likable people, enmeshed in a plot that’s not their own, and doing their best to get out of it by finding the real murderer.
Which they do.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I liked the Tibbets books. Moyes wrote good mysteries and Henry and Emmy were likable and believable. Johnny Under Ground is still my favorite, but this was a good one. For my money Moyes was one of the best Brit mystery writers of her era, which is a pretty good recommendation for any writer considering when she started.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm
The last Tibbetts’ book I read took place in the Caribbean, which narrows it down to about three possible titles. I suspect it was Black Girl, White Girl (1989). For whatever reason that I don’t recall now, without trying to track down the review I wrote of it, I didn’t find it among her better ones, and I drifted away from reading more of her work.
My error, as always, since when she was good, she was very very good.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[…] Comment: Maryell’s review of Death on the Agenda, also by Moyes, appeared here earlier on this blog. […]