Nicely written, kind of atmospheric, but a little bit caught up in itself. The characters were well distinguished from each other; yet somehow it was still sometimes hard to figure out which point of view was being told. It was interesting to see how very delicately the whole society trod to try to preserve whatever was possible of a young girl's reputation - definitely dating this book to its 1965 publication.

It is very odd to pick up a book and start reading it and think, “this feels familiar and yet not,” only at one point to realize, “yup, read it already.” Oh well. Rereading reinforced my feeling that while this is by the brilliant Ellis Peters, it by no means compares to the Cadfael series. And I won’t read any others. Or reread this one.

A rather heart-rending mystery that unfortunately has a memorable solution, which is a problem when you like to re-read as much as I do.

Ok. I was wrong when I said I wouldn’t read any more books in this series. At the end of each ebook, there are the fi4s5 couple of chapters of the next book. You have to read them or it looks if you didn’t finish the previous story. So I read the next two. Like binging a series on Netflix. Still 3 stars but interesting enough to keep going.

This book had a bit of a slow start during the long first chapter. I actually tried it once or twice in the last year or so and never got more than a page or two. This time, I kept going (dodging homework is good for something!) and by the end of chapter 2 found it hard to set aside for very long. It was not action-packed or very suspenseful, but there was the frustration of a nut that would not be cracked, for the reader as much as for the professional and amateur sleuths in the story. The mystery was as much psychological as anything else and was quite good. I was impressed by the growth exhibited by Tom Fenyon in the course of the story and found his character and that of DI Felse rather compelling.

I have - obviously - been binging on this series. This one and the previous one are perhaps my least favorites, because they are so centered on the sort of sixties/seventies version of a manic pixie dream girl who is in desperate need of saving because she won't look after herself and makes terrible decisions. Which, no thanks. But I like the central characters so much and the way Peters writes that I forgive it. I just would rather the others in the series.

A strange disappearance and a horrific murder lead teacher Tom Felse to carry out his own investigation.