This series has been recommended to me by various members of a reading group I belong to and also by visitors who have left comments on Random. Everyone knows I love a good mystery and it is always a pleasure to find another series to read with the prospect of at least 9-10 books to go.
I ordered the first two, Death and the Oxford Box and Oxford Exit and then, in my usual cack handed manner, read them out of order. You would have thought that that would have been rather difficult to do, but I managed it. However, I am quite glad I did as if I had read Oxford Box first I am not sure I would have been impressed enough to read a second. I found the plotting of this rather weak and the ending somewhat far fetched.
The Oxford Exit was much much better, almost as if Veronica Stallwood had been practising with her first book and had taken great strides with the second. This story had a more interesting premise. Kate Ivory, the heroine in this series who is a writer of popular historical novels but not so well off that she can afford to turn down the offer of a job, is asked to investigate the seeming disappearance of books from the Bodleian library. As a cataloguer herself who knows the system she is asked to investigate.
As Simon over on Stuck in a Book in works at the Bodleian Library and has mentioned the oath that one has to take about not starting a fire in the building, which was mentioned in this book, I had an interest in the background setting and could imagine him lurking in the book stacks and sending esoteric old novels to far flung places. (Sorry Simon, but it did help me place the story much more and made it more immediate). As an ex-librarian myself, who found cataloguing rather fascinating (yes, I know it is sad...) the ins and outs of this mystery intrigued me, particularly as the death of a young library trainee seems to be linked to the vanishing stock. She had obviously stumbled upon what was happening and was silenced.
The story is told from Kate's point of view and that of the murderer whose narrative of his childhood and his dreams of working in Oxford run alongside the investigation. As I have mentioned before on this blog, this is a device that I am very fond of as it gives the reader an insight into the workings of the culprit and, from the hints and bits of information that are dropped, we can try and guess the identity of this anonymous 
narrator and beat Kate to the finish. Of course, you don't and I didn't and I got it totally wrong.
The mixture of a university library, missing books and a murder are a glorious combination (almost as good as Donna Leon's Death at la Fenice when we had the death of a famous conductor in an opera house in Venice - talk about too many good things at once) and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Oxford Exit. I now look forward to working my way through the rest of the oeuvre and finding out more about Kate Ivory whose character at this stage is still very much a sketch I feel, but it will be interesting to see the portrait as it is painted. Characters have been introduced that I am sure are going to be a more integral part of her life as the series continues so I shall see if I have picked up the hints correctly.
In the last year or so, I have discovered Donna Leon, Andrew Taylor, Martin Edwards and now Veronica Stallwood, all new crime writers who I hope will keep me busy for some time to come. Sadly, I have exhausted all of DL Sayers though I have no problem with re-reading the divine Lord Peter, and am currently re-reading Ngaio Marsh for the umpteenth time, have not yet come to terms with Margery Allingham try though I might and am looking forward to the new Reginald Hill, Susan Hill and Inspector Frost book due in the next few months. Still not sure about the Camilleri series, however, though I may persevere. I have also abandoned the Maisie Dobbs series which I was not keen on, though I know that there are a lot of fans out there, just did not click for me.
If anybody knows of a detective series that I might like, preferably one with a gorgeous detective (please don't think I am shallow), prefereably set in the 1930's or 1940's and with a long list to work through, then I would be delighted to hear from you. Don't know why I started that sentence with IF, as it is a dead cert you all know lots.
So get those little grey cells working ....
