- Paperback
- Publisher: Avon Books (Mm); Reprint edition (January 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0380719983
- ISBN-13: 978-0380719983
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.4 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 113 g
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#16,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40 in Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > British Detectives
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A cruel and manipulative woman is strangled to death in a British village in Barnard's subtle, delightful novel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- The author of The Skeleton in the Grass (Thorndike, 1988) has written another page-turner. Lydia Perceval has always controlled the men in her life, from her former beau, to her n'er-do-well ex-husband, to the nephews to whom she is so devoted that she usurps her sister's role as mother. Just as it seems that she has lost her power, two boys enter her life. Intelligent and friendly, they soon become her pet project. In fact, when Lydia is murdered, they are surprised to learn that she had not yet placed them in her will, while investigating superintendent Mike Oddie observes that her former boyfriend is not at all surprised to be her sole heir. The deeper Oddie delves into Lydia's past, the more he realizes that there was nothing simple about any of her "attachments" and that any one of them could have led to her fatal end. Combining the psychological probing of a Ruth Rendell story with the class tensions of a P. D. James mystery, Barnard creates a unique form of suspense novel. It's an excellent introduction to a prize-winning writer.
- Catherine Clancy, Boston Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Catherine Clancy, Boston Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
5.0 out of 5 stars
ONE OF BARNARD'S BEST, Sep 6 2010
By Joseph Yeater "Ol' Country Boy & City Wife" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fatal Attachment (Paperback)
Not a lot of action but plenty of character study. Great novel and I do mean great. The subtle poison that our Miss Lydia injects into her victim's minds and hearts change their lives forever. Her final comeuppance is quite masterful. The ending stays with you long after you finish the last sentence. Recommended most highly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant novel, brilliant mystery, Sep 26 2006
By P. Schumacher - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Fatal Attachment (Paperback)
Robert Barnard's wonderful books fall into two rough periods.His earlier books were primarily social satires, ripping pretensions and class pomposity right and left. They also happened to be good mysteries, but that was secondary.
His later books--roughly from Death and the Chaste Apprentice on--have been less about satire and more about the difficulties and small tragedies everyone, of every class, must face.
This book, A Fatal Attachment, includes both. The chief protagonist, and victim, Lydia Perceval, is a smart, manipulative, ruthless, self-deluded snob--who "appropriates" others' children to mold them into the Romantic heroes she dreams of, but destroys everyone in the process.
The portrait of her and the harm she does is biting; but--like all Barnard's portraits--also sympathetic (though not forgiving).
She gets her comeuppance in a way that no one could have foreseen. You have to wait till the very last four sentences to realize just how unexpected, and how karmic, her fate is.
The other characters are all more sympathetically dealt with, and all form a complex picture of parental-vs.-sibling rivalries, and class-vs.-personal conflicts.
A masterful study of a small town in England, and a brilliant portrait of its people and of universal loss and redemption.
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