‘A House Divided’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
1 November 2022.
ISBN: 978-0-72785025-6 (HB)

In May 1861, Matthew Rowsley and his wife Harriet leave Thorncroft House and their professional duties, to join others who have been invited to spend a few days at the home of Matthew’s cousin, Colonel Barrington Rowsley.  The couple’s excitement at receiving the invitation is tempered by the knowledge that the aristocratic guests with whom they will mingle might look down on them because of their lower social status.  Harriet is right to be wary; she finds herself cold-shouldered by the upper-class women, including the Colonel’s wife, her hostess, Lady Hortensia.  Only one house guest, the enigmatic Grafin Weiser, shows any semblance of kindness to Harriet.  To make matters worse, Harriet must also stand her ground when treated with scorn by some peevish staff members employed by the Colonel.

When a cricket match is arranged between the Clunston Park party and a village eleven, Matthew is included in the Colonel’s team.  Harriet, no mean player herself, is obliged to join the other wives as a spectator.  As the afternoon draws on, the game is interrupted by a vicious downpour, during which Harriet unwittingly causes a scandal by averting an accident!  Matthew, meanwhile, notices the disagreeable Major Jameson riding roughshod over Barrington.  Why, he wonders, does the Colonel allow a military inferior to boss him about? 

The tense atmosphere worsens with the discovery of a murdered houseguest and becomes even more febrile when a second death occurs.  To make matters worse, the impact of the bad weather confines the occupants of Clunston Park the house, a house which may harbour a brutal assassin.  The scene is set for an intriguing mystery as Matthew and Harriet find themselves called upon to find the killer or killers, a quest that will not be without risk to our intrepid investigators.

This is Judith Cutler’s fourth detective tale to feature Matthew and Harriet Rowsley.  As with the preceding books, it works perfectly well as a stand-alone.  Historical details are informative and accurate, and I was delighted to read of Harriet’s bowling expertise, with its nod to the roundarm action pioneered by Christina Willes in the early 1800’s. The plot unfolds through the first-person narratives of Matthew and Harriet.  This engenders a sense of immediacy, emphasizes the warmth of their relationship, and foregrounds the equality they enjoy within their marriage.  A variety of nineteenth century orthodoxies and anxieties are deftly explored, but the story always takes precedence over social comment.

In A House Divided the author has delivered an entertaining tale through economical prose that complements the mood, setting and characters she creates.  The result is thrilling, engaging and enjoyable from beginning to end.  Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. There are three books in this series.

http://www.judithcutler.com

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.