REVIEW: Death on the Cherwell
Oct. 14th, 2016 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllDeath on the Cherwell: Mavis Doriel Hay, 2014, The British Library
Four female undergraduate students from Persephone College, Oxford University, are in the process of setting up a secret society. Its main purpose is to range them against their college bursar, Miss Deering, when...her canoe is borne by the river of the title right under their noses. It changes things, rather, for in it lies Miss Deering’s dead body. The Lode League, under the energetic leadership of Sally Watson, responds by taking it upon itself to investigate. For one thing, Sally, like Daphne, Nina and Gwyneth knows that their college-mate Draga, who is ‘Yugo-Slavian’ may do something mad, although they’re sure Draga didn’t kill Miss Deering. The students are also sure of their own intelligence and that they can investigate far more ably than the police, and their first encounter with Inspector Wythe, a representative of the local force, only confirms that belief.
The reader is equally dismissive of Wythe, who, unlike the reader, is not primed by the very act of sitting down to read a murder mystery to think that the bursar’s mysterious death was a most heinous crime, but shows real town versus gown prejudice by first thinking that it was a student prank gone wrong. Fortunately, someone from the Yard is called for and Brydon is a much safer pair of hands. Having treated Sally and co. sensibly, he learns what they’ve found out and takes on the case – indeed, takes it out of their hands, realising that it is a puzzle, almost a game for them, but the more they learn, the more they will see that the figure of authority they resented was a human being whose death was caused by another human being.
The main point of interest for me here was the setting – not so much that it’s an island on a river in Oxford, but a college for female students in the days when women getting their degrees was still treated as a freak and these young women are described as ‘undergraduettes’ by the press. Sally and co. are an interesting bunch – the old girls of boarding school stories, the former sixth formers and prefects who have attained the age of putting their hair up are here ‘first years’, bursting with energy. The adults who are responsible for them, chiefly Miss Cordell, the principal of Persephone House, think of them as the dangerous young things – in some ways the equivalent of Middles. Although they’re keener on their study, they also play hard. It’s almost a surprise when they reach for a cigarette, ask for alcohol or drive.
The focus shifts more broadly to include male students from a nearby college who, the amateur detectives inveigle into the investigation. Sally’s older sister Beryl and her husband come into the story (introduced in ‘Murder Underground’ which I’d like to read now). As for the puzzle, I did pick up on a clue that Detective-Inspector Braydon seized on too, so the big reveal at the end wasn’t such a surprise, but the setting, the contrast between Sally and co’s youth and vigour and the (mostly unlamented) death of their bursar kept me interested, even when the police were obsessing over timing and everyone's doings. The author has a dry way of writing about most of the characters and how they interact. One is left hoping that clever Daphne and her poet boy-friend Owen get on, that Draga settles down and that Pamela gets taken care of, and that all the female students get good degrees that stand them in good stead for whatever they do later in life, which is testament to how they represent early twentieth century female undergrads.
Four female undergraduate students from Persephone College, Oxford University, are in the process of setting up a secret society. Its main purpose is to range them against their college bursar, Miss Deering, when...her canoe is borne by the river of the title right under their noses. It changes things, rather, for in it lies Miss Deering’s dead body. The Lode League, under the energetic leadership of Sally Watson, responds by taking it upon itself to investigate. For one thing, Sally, like Daphne, Nina and Gwyneth knows that their college-mate Draga, who is ‘Yugo-Slavian’ may do something mad, although they’re sure Draga didn’t kill Miss Deering. The students are also sure of their own intelligence and that they can investigate far more ably than the police, and their first encounter with Inspector Wythe, a representative of the local force, only confirms that belief.
The reader is equally dismissive of Wythe, who, unlike the reader, is not primed by the very act of sitting down to read a murder mystery to think that the bursar’s mysterious death was a most heinous crime, but shows real town versus gown prejudice by first thinking that it was a student prank gone wrong. Fortunately, someone from the Yard is called for and Brydon is a much safer pair of hands. Having treated Sally and co. sensibly, he learns what they’ve found out and takes on the case – indeed, takes it out of their hands, realising that it is a puzzle, almost a game for them, but the more they learn, the more they will see that the figure of authority they resented was a human being whose death was caused by another human being.
The main point of interest for me here was the setting – not so much that it’s an island on a river in Oxford, but a college for female students in the days when women getting their degrees was still treated as a freak and these young women are described as ‘undergraduettes’ by the press. Sally and co. are an interesting bunch – the old girls of boarding school stories, the former sixth formers and prefects who have attained the age of putting their hair up are here ‘first years’, bursting with energy. The adults who are responsible for them, chiefly Miss Cordell, the principal of Persephone House, think of them as the dangerous young things – in some ways the equivalent of Middles. Although they’re keener on their study, they also play hard. It’s almost a surprise when they reach for a cigarette, ask for alcohol or drive.
The focus shifts more broadly to include male students from a nearby college who, the amateur detectives inveigle into the investigation. Sally’s older sister Beryl and her husband come into the story (introduced in ‘Murder Underground’ which I’d like to read now). As for the puzzle, I did pick up on a clue that Detective-Inspector Braydon seized on too, so the big reveal at the end wasn’t such a surprise, but the setting, the contrast between Sally and co’s youth and vigour and the (mostly unlamented) death of their bursar kept me interested, even when the police were obsessing over timing and everyone's doings. The author has a dry way of writing about most of the characters and how they interact. One is left hoping that clever Daphne and her poet boy-friend Owen get on, that Draga settles down and that Pamela gets taken care of, and that all the female students get good degrees that stand them in good stead for whatever they do later in life, which is testament to how they represent early twentieth century female undergrads.
