Matricide at St. Marthas - Softcover

Book 5 of 11: Robert Amiss Mysteries

Edwards, Ruth Dudley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1459656210 ISBN 13: 9781459656215

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2013

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St. Martha's College, Cambridge, had been staggering along on a shoestring for decades. Then alumna Alice Toon leaves her old school a huge fortune. The dons immediately fall to fighting over the spoils. The Virgins, led by Dame Maud Theodosia Buckbarrow, believe the bequests should be spent on scholarships. The Dykes - fewer in number but better street fighters - want to raise a center of Gender and Ethnic Studies. The Old Women (mostly men) dream of fine vintages to be laid down in a decent new wine cellar. Impasse! They've reckoned without the Bursar, Jack Troutbeck. She elects to infiltrate this maelstrom of politics with her own agent, Robert Amiss, a former civil servant with a talent for sorting things out. No sooner does he arrive on the scene where the Virgins are getting the upper hand than Dame Maud is murdered, leading into what Mike Ripley of The Daily Telegraph described as: ''An acidly funny romp... Superbly bitchy on the none - too - fragrant groves of academe.''

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Review

"The clever plot takes second place to the ebullience of the writing and spot-on inventiveness of the satire."-Marcel Berlins, The Times

""The clever plot takes second place to the ebullience of the writing and spot-on inventiveness of the satire.""-Marcel Berlins, The Times

From the Back Cover

When Alice Toon leaves an enormous bequest to St Martha's College, the dons split into three factions: the Virgins, the Dykes and the Old Women (who are, in fact, men). Determined to do down the Dykes, the Bursar infiltrates into this maelstrom of academic politics her friend and ex-civil service colleague, Robert Amiss.
The Virgins believe the bequest should be spent in austere areas of scholarship; the Dykes want to spend the money on a centre for Gender and Ethnic Studies; the Old Women prefer more worldly pleasures, and are already dreaming of the vintages to be laid down in a new wine cellar.

Just as it seems the Virgins are getting the upper hand, one of their number is found dead...and once again Amiss finds himself at the sharp end of a murder investigation.

"I fear it will make you laugh out loud on public transport"
JILL NEVILLE, 'Evening Standard'

"A marvellously rueful grand finale"
JOHN COLEMAN, 'Sunday Times'

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