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Adult Books - Fiction - Crime Fiction - Mystery
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Fox Evil.
Walters, Minette (author).
May 2003. 352p. Putnam, hardcover, $24.95 (0-399-15054-4).
REVIEW.
First published March 15, 2003 (Booklist).
The title of Walters’ latest fright fest comes from a peculiarly virulent kind of skin disorder, in which hair falls out in mangy clumps. It also serves as the delightful nickname of one of Walters’ main characters in this compulsive page-turner, which puts a deranged spin on the conventional village cozy. The matriarch of a wealthy family is found dead in the garden, bloodstains near her night-gowned form. The chief suspect is her husband, Colonel James Lockyer Fox; suspicion against him grows even after he has been officially cleared by the coroner. From this traditional start, Walters’ narrative takes detours: into the worlds of fox-hunting saboteurs and down-and-outers living in a caravan park just outside the village. She also throws in the colonel’s attempts to reconcile with his illegitimate granddaughter. All this, against the backdrop of growing community hostility toward the colonel, makes for a novel that becomes increasingly intriguing as the reader realizes how the plotlines intersect. Walters, who has won both the American Edgar and the British Gold Dagger Award, is expert at ratcheting up suspense while she portrays credibly confused and terrified characters meeting their fates. Great psychological acuity in a hair-raising suspense story. — Connie Fletcher
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