Narrated by Joel Leslie
Cat Sebastian’s Hither, Page is book one in a series of mysteries set just after the Second World War in the sort of sleepy English village beloved of cosy mysteries and British detective series; a place in which all the inhabitants are in and out of each other’s business, gossip abounds and deep secrets are kept. I read the book when it came out last summer and enjoyed it very much, so I was really pleased to be able to experience it again in audio. And with Joel Leslie in the narrator’s chair I knew I was guaranteed an entertaining listen.
Doctor James Sommers returned to his home in the small Cotswold village of Wychcomb St. Mary after the war, having served as an army surgeon. Like many others, he continues to be haunted by his wartime experiences and has been forever changed by them; he still has nightmares and reacts badly to the unexpected, and he wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days in the quiet obscurity of a normal life, treating coughs and colds and boils and bunions and attending the odd birth. But when one of the villagers is murdered – drugged and then pushed down a flight of stairs – James is more disturbed than he cares to admit, and realises that his carefully constructed illusion of peace [is] in tatters.
Local charwoman Mildred Hoggatt wasn’t well-liked and had a habit of poking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted, but there seems to be no real motive for her murder. The police are baffled and the local community is in a state of delighted curiosity over what is by far the most excitement the village had seen since the sheep-stealing incident of 1935, but James is just … apprehensive. His worries are borne out when, at Mrs. Hoggatt’s funeral, he recognises a man he’d last seen one night in 1944 when he’d patched up a bullet wound sustained by someone he’d believed at the time to be a member of the French Resistance. Seeing him now at the edge of the churchyard, James can only find one explanation for his presence that makes any sense; he must be some sort of government agent. But why would a government agent have been sent to look into the death of a mere charwoman?
Leo Page was recruited to one of the more disreputable branches of the intelligence services when he was just fifteen, and has lied, spied and generally got his hands dirty for them ever since. He has no family and no friends, which is fine by him, as neither is compatible with his way of life. Adopting the persona of a clerk snatching a few days holiday in the area to study the local church architecture, he watches Mildred Hoggatt’s funeral from a distance, and notices the local doctor, who, besides being nice to look at, seems rather familiar. Leo wastes no time in ingratiating himself with the villagers, who are desperate to share all the gossip and speculation with someone new – and he wastes no time in flirting with James either – discreetly of course.
In spite of James’ resentment at the intrusion of more death and devastation into the quiet life he craves and his reluctance to become involved, he changes his mind when the police investigation seems to be pointing the finger at fifteen-year-old Wendy, an evacuee who lodges with the vicar and his wife, and who was never been ‘claimed’ by her family or sent home after the war. Wendy was left a large sum of money in Mildred’s will for reasons nobody can fathom – and no way can James stand by and allow an innocent girl to be accused of a crime she didn’t commit.
The mystery is well thought-out and moves along at a good pace, and the relationship between James and Leo is nicely developed and carries equal weight in the story. There’s an instant spark of attraction there and Leo is certainly not shy about making his interest known, but James is more inclined to caution, and not just because it’s 1946 and homosexuality is illegal; he’s reluctant to become involved with a man for whom betrayal and deception come as naturally as breathing – and who will be moving on as soon as the murder is solved. But Leo’s time at Wychcomb – and with James – sees his priorities undergoing an unexpected shift and finds him, for the first time in his life, wanting to belong somewhere – with someone – and wondering what it would be like to live a more settled life. He’s spent so much of his life being whoever he needed to be for his current assignment, but now maybe he can finally take the time to figure out who Leo Page really is.
Cat Sebastian has done a great job here of creating the atmosphere of an English country village, which makes the Americanisms that slip in (“gotten”, “trash” for example) that much more noticeable (for me, things like that are always much more obvious in audio), and I hope she’s able to eradicate them in the next book. And as with most cosy mysteries, there’s an interesting secondary cast of quirky, well-rounded characters, including the Misses Pickering and Delacourt, a pair of elderly spinsters who live on the outskirts of the village, the vicar and his permanently harried wife, and the effervescent Wendy who seems to be everywhere at once lending a helping hand.
Joel Leslie does a wonderful job with the narration (not that I expected anything else), displaying his talent for creating and sustaining a variety of different character ‘voices’ and his ability to convey the subtlest of emotional cues. The supporting cast, as I mentioned, is quite large, but Mr. Leslie has absolutely no problem whatsoever in making each of them distinct and easily recognisable by use of a variety of timbre and accent. He’s superb at portraying the elderly ladies (channelling his inner Maggie Smith no doubt!); we’ve got a Welsh vicar and his Australian wife, a gruff, blustery colonel – it sounds as though he had great fun delving into his narrator’s box of tricks and I certainly appreciated it! If I have one criticism, it’s that Marston – a former patient of James’ – sounds a little too much like Leo at times, but it’s a really tiny thing and not one that impacted on my understanding or enjoyment. His interpretation of the leads is spot on, too, and I was impressed with the way he’s able to convey the inner weariness beneath James’ generally placid manner, while also capturing his quiet humour.
Hither, Page is a relatively short listen (under seven hours) but is a thoroughly enjoyable one that I recommend unreservedly.
Caz
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Oh, that’s good, I enjoyed this book when it came out – and I’ve loved Joel Leslie’s readings of Lily Morton’s books.
I thought she made a good job of representing an English village too, but it was her use of ‘muffler’ that got me. It would be wool/woolen/wooly scarf, wouldn’t it? I got ‘pulled out’ every time it was mentioned!
Yes, or just scarf – and there were a few other Americanisms that slipped in, too, as I mentioned. And because she does such a good job on the rest of it, they stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. I hope she can eradicate them in the next one.