Death and the Joyful Woman (1961)

Mysteries that involve the detective's family are tricky, and even though this starts off from the son's viewpoint and and involvement with a suspect, it doesn't break free of the tricky thorny aspect. Also the sweetly managing women gag me and all the young tender manhood garbage. ( )

An unpleasant promoter turns a ice old house into a pony pub called The Jolly Barmaid. Then he is murdered. Felse has a suspect but his young son believes she is innocent. ( )

In some ways I enjoyed Peters' Inspector Felse stories (contemporary to the time they were written) even more than the Cadfael series. This one focuses a lot on Felse's son Dominic and their relationship, but is no less a good mystery for that. ( )

Nice characters. I liked the early twist that turned a murder mystery convention on its head. ( )

This is the first Ellis Peters book I've read that wasn't a Cadfael story... I was amazed to see that she doesn't ALWAYS write in that old language style! Well written, but she puts too much into the being-in-love parts, in my opinion. Good story, but the characterization doesn't come through for me as much as the Cadfael books. Nor do I find as much historical atmosphere (it takes awhile to figure out the period).

Fascinating part about the sign for the pub! ( )