As Andrew Taylor has recently won the Diamond Dagger, a sort of Grand Master award in British mystery writing, I thought I ought to sample his work. [b:Caroline Minuscule|901542|Caroline Minuscule (William Dougal, #1)|Andrew Taylor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179302733s/901542.jpg|886719] was his first novel and the start of one of his series, which seem to be each very different from the others. The protagonist in this one is William Dougal, who seems to be a bit of a slacker, if those were around in the early 80s. He's pursuing a degree in some sort of medieval history field, using up a small inheritance. William is a keen and humorous observer of the academic life and characters around him. When he goes to meet his paleography tutor and finds him garotted, it is the first step down a slippery slope. He and his girlfriend become involved in a treasure hunt which will take them from London to Cambridge to the Fen country and into some danger. During that time, William will become a different person. He's not sure he likes the person he's become, but doesn't have a moral foundation to keep himself from becoming it. William, then, is rather an anti-hero and I look forward to reading more of his adventures. ( )

Great book. ( )

This is Andrew Taylor's first book and is of interest mainly for the excellent introduction,which gives the low-down on how he began his writing career and also about this actual book.The story itself is rather slight ,but gives an idea of the great writing to come,for instance in both the 'Roth trilogy' and in the continuing 'Lydmouth' series of books. ( )

This is not badly written, but I've tried to read it a couple of times and keep stalling. The protagonist, William Dougal, seems rather amoral. When he comes on a clue to a treasure, he starts to follow it without regard to niceties of rightful ownership or police investigations.

This was Andrew Taylor's first book and it is the first in a series about William Dougal. Taylor wanted to write about the ability of ordinary people to do not-so-nice things, so I guess he succeeded. ( )