Review
This is the third in the Smart Women series, featuring mother and daughter Ursula and Pandora Smart (in-world, supposedly not their real names) and aunt Charlotte, plus some of their friends and acquaintances, and the series just keeps getting better.
As in the previous two books, the Smart women endeavour to go on a relaxing holiday and instead find themselves marooned (although not literally, this time) and in the middle of a murderous plot. In this third entry, the dynamics of the group have shifted. Godmother Mirabelle has moved in with book-club hanger-on Bridget, who’s replaced her usual tag-along pup with a hairless sphinx cat to account for Mirabelle’s allergies. The lesbian-coded friendship between Mirabelle and Pandora expands into a not-quite-explicit lesbian relationship between Mirabelle and Bridget, and while troubled parental relationships defined the first two books, jealousy provides the golden thread for this book’s plot. There is a brief allusion to Spear, a potential love interest for Ursula who emerged at the end of the last book and who, it seems, has disappointed. Hopefully there may be more in the fourth book.
This book returns to the country-house murder format, joining Lady Black, a former bookclub member and ‘friend’, and her husband for a supper-club safari touring the local Dartmoor village where couples, their illicit lovers, and the usual country cast reside. The setting itself was part of the inspiration for The Hound of the Baskervilles, which Dowd incorporates very lightly to contribute to the area’s atmosphere. With a vicar, farmer, Wiccans, and local historians, however, the cast is more a regular Midsummer Murders collection than a Conan Doyle cabal. Lady Black and her husband—who we are told bought his title—are joined by his disabled sister, who occupies the vicarage in the village below, but they live alone above the village with a monkey called Dupin. (Yes, I know!)
The Blacks combine snooty Lord Of The Manor-ing with arriviste disregard for the locals, and they prove to be unpopular with each other as well as their neighbours. Lord Elzevier (his assumed name) has a penchant for modern installations (a portcullis simply cannot work like a garage door, of course!) and for unfortunate pranks, and in his first meeting with the Smarts and their friends feigns his death in an iron maiden. The convenience of many devices of torture and injury on the estate, including a ducking chair, make the murders all the easier to achieve. The whys and wherefores are, however, to be untangled.
This has a twistier plot, I think, than the second entry in the series, and a more engaging setting than the first, which was also a country-house set-up, the roads there rendered impassable by snow, and here impassable by flooding. (The weather remains unkind to the Smart Women). Whereas in the first two novels there seemed more likelihood of danger to our core cast, it is in this third novel that one of them actually bites the dust. I leave you to read the series to find out which, and why!
See also
These lists capture other stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder (Victoria Dowd)
- Body on the Island (Victoria Dowd)
- The Village of Eight Graves (Seishi Yokomizo)
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allan Poe)
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now! Or check out my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available) right here.
Dominique Gracia 
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