A Charitable Body
A Novel of Suspense
by Robert Barnard
Mem. Ed. $13.99
Pub. Ed. $24.00
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A Charitable Body
What an honor—to become a trustee of one of England’s distinguished stately homes. Yorkshire cop Charlie Peace’s wife, Felicity, is at first thrilled when she’s asked to help oversee Walbrook Manor, a recent gift to the nation. It’s not long, though, before both she and Charlie smell trouble.
Walbrook has suffered a lurid history of feuds and treachery. Perhaps the family and its heirs would have done better to have kept the great house and its secrets to themselves. Now that “the nation” is involved, anything could happen.
Rupert Fiennes and Sir Stafford Quarles represent two wings of the warring family. On the surface, peace reigns, but when the wreck of a car and the remains of a woman turn up in a nearby lake, it becomes clear the Walbrook hides a grim secret that may go back to the years between the two World Wars.
With the police disdaining long-ago mysteries, Charlie and Felicity are left to probe the sins of the past and the dangers of the present, a task made more difficult by an array of characters, including disgruntled family and some heritage/preservation junkies.
Suspenseful, witty and superbly insightful, A Charitable Body shows Robert Barnard at his scintillating best.
Hardcover : 256 pages
Publisher: Scribner/Simon & Schuster ( January 03, 2012 )
Item #: 13-481809
ISBN: 9781439177433
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.625inches
Product Weight: 11.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Incredibly slow 
March 10, 2012
It takes some persistence to stick with this slow opening and then with the long blocks of dialogue. I liked the lead characters but the conflict was too utterly complex (at least to me). Can't recommend this book.
Reviewer: Audrey W
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