Thus Was Adonis Murdered (Hilary Tamar)

Loved it! Like other readers, the main source of enjoyment for me was not the mystery itself, but the hilariously understated narrative style of Professor Tamar and the letters from Venice. This is the finest example of what I guess people call "comedy of manners" that I've ever read.That said, there are a few nagging issues that prevent me from giving it five stars. At no point in the book, even the point where Hilary literally states that we have all the information required to know the identity of the killer, did I feel that there was enough for the reader to have any inkling of what happened. My reaction to the reveal was not "Aha!" but more like "whatever". Granted, I'm not necessarily the sharpest fork in the soup, but I was trying.The letters from Julia and Timothy are so incredibly long as to stretch credulity. If you're from my generation or younger (the book was written before I was born) maybe that is an ill informed reaction. But Julia seems to recall the precise dialogue of everyone that she interacted with on that day as well. I realize that the letters are forming a necessary story element of exposition, and plot advancement, since Hilary himself never ventures to Venice. Yet I've read similar epistolary fiction where the letters come off much more genuine.One last thing, a number of professional reviews talk about the mystery of the professor's gender. Do you concur? If not for the first name Hilary, it is hard for me to attribute any mystery to this. The professors internal reactions seem eminently male to me, especially in regard to things like the lack of thought of being a burden. "I'm sorry to miss breakfast at Ragworts....I assumed I would spend the day with you Selene, cooking for me will be no imposition for you, you only need to make me an omelette for lunch and sole with caper sauce for dinner...etc." Yes, this was all paraphrased.Let me reiterate. Funny, funny book. Definitely get your hands on it somehow.

I enjoyed this book very much. It helps if you appreciate the British sense of humor, which is a bit different from the American sense of humor, and it includes British slang and British references. If you like the BBC comedies, this might be a book for you.It’s very clever, stylish and well written.Some things it is not: fast paced or exciting. It proceeds at a leisurely place, with most of the information being conveyed through the reading out loud of letters. A group of what we Americans would call lawyers read the letters of a vacationing friend, part of their crowd She is famous for being a klutz, the sort who is expected to spill her coffee all over everyone near her as she trips over her own feet. She gets into trouble in a foreign land and requires their assistance. Her exploits (and their reactions) are amusing and entertaining.That said, I’m not sure if I will read the other books in the series. Although it was enjoyable, it is also a bit cold and distant. It is a book where I enjoyed the unfolding of the plot and the clever turns of phrases but felt no particular sympathy for anyone in the book. I had trouble keeping the other characters straight, although that was not really an issue.

If you have the right sense of humor, this book is hilarious. Do you find Jane Austen funny? You will find this funny too. It has the same kind of sophisticated, understated but ultimately skewering wit.By the way, the summary Amazon gives bears NO relationship to the plot. Julia is not on holiday with her boyfriend, she is on holiday looking for sexual adventure. She finds it: then the young man is found dead with Julia's copy of the Tax Act (she is a tax lawyer) found by the bed. It looks as if she is the only person who could have killed him. But Hilary Tamar, an Oxford don of ambiguous sex but unambiguous scholarship, unravels the mystery and saves her reputation.

I've read these books in print for years and I've always agreed that Hilary's gender was carefully concealed. However, this reading has changed my mind. Check on the trip in Selena's car to the airport. Initially Hilary is in the front passenger seat, but after collecting the male passengers Hilary shares the rear seat with Cantrip and Ragwort. No Englishmen of this class would allow a lady to move to the rear seat. To make identification even stronger, at one point the two young men have a friendly tussle. Again, they would certainly not have done this if they were sharing the seat with a lady! Other views will be welcomed. David

This is a wonderfully funny and articulate read set amongst a group of young lawyers practising at Lincoln's Inn. Julia goes on a trip to Venice - but when a fellow traveller is found stabbed in his bed she's soon `helping the police with their enquiries'... while her colleagues back in London try to find the real murderer.This was first published in 1981 but I think written earlier and does depict a far more innocent world where people can joke about `extremists' hijacking planes, and where people write each other long letters on a daily basis.It is set in an elite environment of Oxford-educated lawyers and academics (poor Cantrip is pitied for his deficient education - he only went to Cambridge!), and is full of effete, beautiful young men, and ambiguous sexualities.What makes this book are the narrative voices: sly, witty and slightly malicious. Like Wodehouse and Nancy Mitford, the humour and enjoyment of the book is as much, perhaps more, in the style of telling as in what is told. Hugely enjoyable!

Beautifully written with an elegant and poised prose style. Lots of classical and learned references and a great cast of characters being the young team of barristers in the New Street Chambers. The story was amusing but largely nonsense but given the quality of the writing it really didn’t matter.

I discovered this book when Amazon offered it for 99 pence as a Kindle download. At that price I thought it was worth a go, especially after reading the reviews given it was an author I had never heard of.I am so glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and have gone on to read the other three titles in the series. Sarah Caudwell's stories are based around a group of lawyers and their mentor Professor Hilary Tamar who get involved with and solve 'legal' mysteries. Each story has a financial/legal/tax background and so there are many mantions of the law relating to those areas. Don't let this put you off, as in my view Sarah Caudwell makes it understandable.The books are witty, sophisticated, and funny and the crimes themselves are well thought out with many twists and turns. They are not the sort of book you can skim through, you do have to concentrate on the story in order to avoid missing anything important but in my view this makes them a very satisfying read.

One for fans of dry humour, although there are several delightfully ridicolous passages (particularly Julia's adventures!). This is the first in a tragically short serious of humorous legal detective stories (I know, if you'd told me before I read this that I would enjoy books in such a genre, I would have raised an elegant eyebrow!) and quite possibly the best. Highly recommended!

Sarah Caudwell is a brilliantly witty writer. I am sure she would be brilliant whatever she wrote and I am just grateful that she chose with this series to please those of us who choose humour over everything else. She has invented a set of wonderful characters whose language is extremely English, erudite and funny, and I have just finished my second reading of this book which I enjoyed even more than the first since I was able to concentrate on the writing instead of the plot. It is a whodunnit, but who cares? The writing is what counts.