‘Debts of Dishonour’ by Jill Paton Walsh

Published by Hodder & Stoughton,
27 February 2006.
ISBN: 978-0-340-83919-5 (HB)

Debts of Dishonour sees the welcome return of amateur sleuth Imogen Quy, nurse at St Agatha’s College in Cambridge.

When Sir Julius Farran, head of the Farran Group is invited to dine at St Agatha’s College. The Master of College invites Imogen to dine at High Table. Sir William, the Master of College, is slightly uneasy about the engagement, but is assured by the new bursar Peter Wetherby that Farran is a financial genius. Sit Julius is accompanied by Andrew Duncombe who had left the college some time previously without warning to join the Farran Group.  Imogen had a relationship with Andrew and muses that it will be interesting to see him again.

During the course of the evening there is some disturbance by two of the younger dons, Carl Jenner and Clive Horrocks who grasp the opportunity to take Sir Julius to task for some of his dealings with the companies he has taken over. Later Sir Julius imparts to Imogen that he has many enemies, and if he she should read one day that he has fallen under a bus she should remember these words. 

When Imogen reads some days later that Sir Julius is dead by misadventure she wonders if he was murdered. Andrew Duncombe is also wondering as Sir Julius’s son-in-law has taken over the control of the company and unceremoniously fired Max. So, Imogen and Max set out to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death. Their first port of call is the clinic where Sir Julius was staying at the time of his death. Discovery that the Doctor who owns the clinic is to marry Sir Julius’s widow Lucia sets Imogen thinking. But it seems that many people has a vested interest in doing away with Sir Julius, several members of his Board of Directors bear grudges for a variety of reasons. Most recently the son of one of the owners of one of the businesses he bought and closed putting many people out of business has been constantly harassing him.

Then there is another death at board level and the financial conglomerate which has already withstood the financial implications of the loss of its founder is further hit by the loss of his replacement. For Imogen who has no shares in the company the financial situation is academic, but Imogen is shocked to discover that St Agatha’s could be effected.  

A very cleverly constructed plot with a marvelous twist. Very satisfying as the ends are all cleverly tied up.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Jill Paton Walsh (1937-2020) was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School. In 1961 she married Anthony Paton Walsh.
She won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize. The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns. She held an Arts Council Creative Writing Fellowship in 1976-8; she was a 'permanent visiting faculty member' of the Centre for Children's Literature, Simmons College, Boston, Massachussetts from 1978 to 1986. She was a Whitbread Prize judge in 1984, was Chairman of the Cambridge Book Association from 1987 to 1989, and has served on the management committee of the Society of Authors. In 1996 she received the CBE for services to literature and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.