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Title: Amateur sleuth, Academic setting
Review: As a long-time Barbara Pym fan, I was curious about Hazel Holt's mysteries. I had previously read her biography of Pym who was her colleague and friend. So, perhaps it was not fair of me to expect or hope for Pymean wit in the work of Ms. Holt. Certainly I found little of it. The main character, Sheila Mallory is a likeable, if dim, amateur sleuth of the bumbling variety. Her various stabs at a solution to the murder of an assistant employed by the Bodlean Library are pathetic. Ultimately, the mystery is easy to solve simply because the list of suspects is so small. The book would be pleasant enough given its Oxford setting, but was ruined for me by the depiction of homosexuals. They are shown as scheming and cruel. (Saying more about their motivations would constitute a spoiler.) Strangely, a novel that seems intended as a pleasant read ends up as a mean-spirited exercise in cliched characters.
