THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050678
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: SHIRLEY PRESBERG
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
POLITICAL DEATH
ANTONIA FRASER
Bantam Books. 208 pp. $21.95.
When investigative reporter Jemima Shore interviews Lady Imogen Swain for a TV program on aging, she finds a drunk, vindictive woman in Political Death, Antonia Fraser's latest Jemima Shore mystery.
During the interview, Lady Imogen offers Jemima her old diaries and her love letters from Burgo Smyth, Britain's current Foreign Secretary. Swain claims that the diaries implicate Smyth in a government scandal that occurred over 30 years ago.
Jemima decides to take just one of the diaries with her. The next day, Lady Imogen suspiciously falls to her death. Her actress daughter gives the remaining diaries and letters to a stagehand for safekeeping. Soon after, someone kills the stagehand, and the diaries and letters disappear.
Fraser cleverly sets her story on the eve of an important election and gives several of her characters motives for murder. Smyth's son and daughter are both running for seats in the House of Commons. Lady Imogen's other daughter is married to a politician who is also a political candidate. The revelations in the diaries could hurt any of them.
Political Death is a sparkling whodunit with a terrific surprise ending. My only quibble is that Jemima didn't take all of the letters and diaries with her when she had the chance. Few investigative reporters would be so careless. by CNB