Carolyn Morwood

Back when we were all a quite a bit younger Carolyn Morwood had a couple of books out featuring Melbourne based, female, professional cricketer Marlo Shaw (AN UNCERTAIN DEATH and A SIMPLE DEATH). She followed that up more recently with the Eleanor Jones series, set around the time of World War I (DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY and CYANIDE AND POPPIES). Her latest novel DIG TWO GRAVES has a more contemporary timeframe, and is set in Southern Spain around an artist's retreat / residency.

Leaning more towards the crimance sub-genre than the earlier books, DIG TWO GRAVES features six international artists - all specialists in different forms of art (writing / painting / sculpture etc) and their interactions, past / present and future. A tricky mix of ego's, insecurities, ability, jealousies and downright self-centredness the early part of the book sets up a cast that might leave you wondering how somebody is going to rise about the general horribleness to end up qualifying as a potential victim.

The quote at the start of the book explains the title:

'Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.' Confucius

Which is a particularly intriguing idea, built into a novel that's a slow burner. The hook in the early stages relies very heavily on the character build up. For reader's to stick with that long lead in these people have to grab or engage you. Their stories are littered with romantic angst, longing, regret and - let's be frank here - some really odd behaviour. For each person that repels or annoys, there could be another in the cast that engenders sympathy or interest. But there are a lot of perfectly unlikeable people here, and Morwood seems to be playing with people's conception of "artistic temperaments" as much as she is on the question of adults behaving flat out badly.

But ultimately DIG TWO GRAVES relies heavily on a descriptive, languid writing style, full of portents and observations, internal musings and a lot of that angst, longing and regret. This will be a novel that works incredibly well for fans of that style.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/dig-two-graves-carolyn-morwood… (meer)

Taking place about four years after the action depicted in DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY, Carolyn Morwood’s second Eleanor Jones novel is set in Melbourne during the rather intense late spring of 1923. The police have gone on strike over their poor pay and conditions and while authorities struggle to co-opt enough ‘special constables’ from the ranks of returned soldiers there is an unusual amount of violence in the city’s streets. Against this backdrop Edward Bain, reporter for The Argus newspaper, is found dead in his office. Eleanor Jones has returned to her pre-war job and also works at the paper now but retains enough knowledge from her time as a nurse during and immediately after the war to know that Edward’s death is unnatural; she suspects cyanide poisoning.

At first Eleanor is more mildly curious than intensely interested in the investigation into Bain’s death. She is more troubled by personal matters, particularly the state of her brother Andrew’s health. They are both living in their parent’s Melbourne house while their parents are travelling abroad and Andrew is still suffering the effects of the shell shock he returned from the battlefield with. However when the police start to suspect a woman Andrew has become friendly with Eleanor is prompted to become more closely involved with the investigation. She’s not sure her brother can cope with another tragedy in his life.

The characters here are all well drawn; they’ve some foibles and some secrets they want to keep and there’s silly behaviour they continue to engage in even when it doesn’t really make sense. Just like real people right? Eleanor is happy enough with her work as a film reviewer for the paper but her personal life remains problematic: the man she is interested in (despite her best efforts to ignore the attraction) is married to someone else. However she doesn’t mope or dwell on this unfortunate circumstance, and is far more worried for her surviving brother (the other died during the war). The depiction of her not knowing how to help him is very realistic, as is his portrayal as a man struggling to deal with all he saw and experienced during the war.

The story is a first-rate, traditional whodunnit. There are plenty of plausible suspects whose elimination follows a suitably twisted path, with the involvement of Eleanor (and friends) feeling as credible as it’s possible for amateur sleuths to do. And there are some really interesting background elements here including a glimpse into the running of a newspaper and the inclusion of a psychic character with a difference. This is all topped off with an excellent sense of time and place: even though it’s 90 years ago the depiction of a city which wouldn’t dream of letting a little thing like mass rioting get in the way of running the Melbourne Cup is spot-on.

I’m really glad I was able to get my hands on a copy of CYANIDE AND POPPIES (which was no mean feat) and can recommend it to fans of historical crime fiction. It really does have everything you could look for from this genre… (meer)

DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY is the first book from Carolyn Morwood for quite a while, and that, if for no other reason was enough to create some interest in these parts. Set in the period immediately following World War 1, in Melbourne, during the Spanish 'Flu epidemic of 1919, the book introduces Sister Eleanor Jones. Returned from nursing soldiers overseas, she has volunteered to work in the temporary hospital that is set up within the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings to treat the huge number of patients who succumb to the epidemic.

Given the number of people dying from the 'flu it seems somewhat incongruous that the death of one man, a soldier who has a less than impressive background before or during the war, should cause a stir, but murder is murder, and Jones, working late in the evening in the convalescent ward, has seen something out of place on the night that Reddy died - as it turns out - from arsenic poisoning. The subsequent disappearance of another recovering soldier, Jimmy Cotton seems to be an admission of guilt to the authorities, but Jones is not convinced. Asked to look into the entire matter by the Matron of the hospital, she commences her own investigation.

DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY does a really convincing job at drawing a picture of Melbourne in that time, during that epidemic. The atmosphere of a city in lock-down and the hospital hastily put together within the confines of the Exhibition Building was particularly well drawn. There is an excellent feeling for how life was lived in Melbourne in that time - the unusualness of private cars; the farming family with a farm in Dimboola and a Collins Street residence; the affect of the Great War on so many families - now left mostly female, and frequently utterly bereft at the death or injury of so many men.

Unfortunately there are a few points at which the action drags, and you can't help feeling that the assistance of an editor would have helped Morwood create a tighter story. Certainly the denouement was too padded, which was a pity as it was not so much of a "who did it" by that point, but the "why did it" deserved clearer and more direct focus. Aside from the padding, Sister Eleanor Jones is a really interesting character, a female protagonist with a troubled background, a returned nurse from a war fighting her own demons as a result. It's rather pleasing to know that DEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY is the first of a trilogy, as more books will give us all a chance to get to know her, and the Victoria that she lives in better.… (meer)