Book review: Ingredients of classic crime fiction keep Sam Blake's 'The Mystery of Four' bubbling

Sam Blake. Picture: Alice Rose Jordan

• The Mystery Of Four
• Sam Blake
• Corvus, £12.99

Unfolding over 10 days in the fictional Wicklow village of Kilfenora, the latest Sam Blake novel, which has so many of the tropes dear to readers of a certain kind of crime fiction, will be just the winter tonic for her large readership.

Tess Morgan, a woman still contending with the death of her husband in a drunk driving incident some years back, is gearing up for the opening to the public of Kilfenora House and Garden, the stately home she has purchased with the help of a mystery backer.

A production of Dr Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, directed by a stylish Englishman called Aidan Gaunt, is to be the flagship event of the opening weekend.

Tess has been trolled in a very threatening way by a person unknown and when things start to go seriously wrong, she begins to feel that somebody is determined that she should fail.

A potentially fatal accident with a lighting rig is followed by the mysterious deaths of two of the people involved in Tess’s project.

To add to all of this, a sleazy television producer believes that the body of at least one of the victims of a serial killer, active a decade or so earlier, may be buried on the grounds of Kilfenora House. Eoin Doyle, an electrician with whom Tess has some professional contact, has long been suspected by local people to have been the killer.

There are parallels between what is happening now and events which occurred in Kilfenora in the 19th century, which prompts people in the village to start talking once more about the curse said to lie on the house and estate.

Tess is lucky to have great support: her lifelong best friend Genevieve, and Genevieve’s formidable mother, an accomplished and once time famous actor, Clarissa Wetmacott. Strong female characters are very much a feature of the narrative.

Handsome Mark Mulligan, returned from Australia to take over the running of the local pub, The Cross Quays, is ever helpful, but Mark too has a dark past.

In true thriller fashion, not everyone is necessarily who they claim to be.

An independently minded cat called Merlin, with excellent judgement of people (is there any other kind of cat?), is one of the book’s most engaging characters.

A big house and a large cast of characters in a village setting, with the usual accoutrements of village life, gossip and jealousies; a curse, ghosts, poison; events seemingly mimicking equally deadly events from the past; and romantic intrigue – all lend the book a flavour of classic crime fiction from an earlier era, and indeed, Agatha Christie is name checked more than once.

This is a well plotted book and Blake handles a large cast of characters adroitly. Pacing is expert, twists, turns and cliff hangers dished out in timely fashion.

This reviewer, not especially taken with the principal characters or their milieu, nevertheless found himself reading ever faster near the end, increasingly eager to see the mystery solved.

The Mystery Of Four is an effective and satisfying whodunit with a wicked resolution.

Sam Blake is the pen name of Vanessa O’Loughlin, originally from St Albans in Hertfordshire, now living in Wicklow with several cats and an occasional poltergeist.

Her Cat Connolly trilogy, including her debut novel, Little Bones, was a bestseller, and more recent books such as The Dark Room and Remember My Name, as well as being bestsellers, have been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year.

The book under review will undoubtedly receive similar commercial and critical success.