Book Review: Debts of Dishonour by Jill Paton Walsh

By Angela Youngman Apr 6, 2006, 9:00 GMT

Booker Prize finalist Walsh returns to her series set at Cambridge Universityfeaturing amateur sleuth Imogen Quy. ...more

A gentle yet absorbing read joining together the world of academia with corporate financial legerdemain. Businessman Sir Julius Farran comes to dine at St Agatha's College, Cambridge where he announces to Imogen Quy that his enemies would gladly kill him. Soon afterwards, he is reported dead - apparently by misadventure.

Imogen begins to wonder, especially when it becomes clear that the financial problems are in the air. The college is about to lose an awful lot of money which it had invested in Farran's company. Quy sets out to investigate in her quiet, yet indomintable way. What exactly did happen that night when Julius Farran fell to his death over a cliff? The answers are a bit unusual to say the least! Debts to society have to paid one way or the other.

An intelligent story, it keeps your attention throughout as you follow the twists and turns of the complex tale. Well worth reading. In some ways Imogen Quy resembles a latter day Miss Marple, intent on following every lead. Employed as a nurse within the college, she has the trust of both staff and students and is willing to use all her contacts to find out the truth.