A Testament to Murder by Vivian Conroy: Book Review

Oh, thank goodness. The Golden Age of crime fiction is back.

Agatha Christie (people tell me) is passé in these days of gritty crime, but I have a fondness for the gentler, more cerebral crime fiction from the period between the wars. In Vivian Conroy’s A Testament to Murder, the first in a new series featuring retired London detective Jasper, the genre is back with a bang.

The premise upon which the plot rests is as clever and irresistible as any I’ve met. Billionaire Malcolm Bryce-Rutherford is dying and invites a selection of friends and family to spend his final days with him at his chateau on the Riviera. They include his secretary, his business partner and his wife (formerly married to Malcolm himself) and their son; his nephew and his wife. And when they’ve arrived he breaks the news ti them. Each day he will change his will in favour of one of them and that person — unknown — will be heir for twenty-four hours only. He dangles in front of them the temptation to murder. If they kill him on the day they’re the heir they inherit but if the murder is discovered they hang, and if they get it wrong someone else gets all the money.

It’s a fantastic setup, and as the story goes on the characters’ back stories are revelled and it becomes clear that not one of them has a guiltless past. As Malcolm and his lawyer pull the strings the tension begins to mount — and the guests themselves begin to die. Malcolm’s neighbour, retired Metropolitan Police detective Jasper, is enlisted by the local police to see what he can find out.

I thought this was a fabulous book, in the true tradition of the 1920s mystery, from the complicated set-up to the denouement in which Jasper exposes everybody’s secrets, their motives and opportunity, before revealing the killer. Twist after twist in the plot kept me guessing right the way through. I loved it.

Thanks to Canelo and Netgalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.