The Shortest Way to Hades

by Sarah Caudwell

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 272
Series: Hilary Tamar #2
Rating:

Synopsis:

It seemed the perfect way to avoid three million in taxes on a five-million-pound estate: change the trust arrangement. Everyone in the family agreed to support the heiress, the ravishing raven-haired Camilla Galloway, in her court petition—except dreary Cousin Deirdre, who suddenly demanded a small fortune for her signature.

Then Deirdre had a terrible accident. That was when the young London barristers handling the trust—Cantrip, Selena, Timothy, Ragwort, and Julia—summoned their Oxford friend Professor Hilary Tamar to Lincoln’s Inn. Julia thinks it’s murder. Hilary demurs. Why didn’t the heiress die? But when the accidents escalate and they learn of the naked lunch at Uncle Rupert’s, Hilary the Scholar embarks on the most perilous quest of all: the truth.

I enjoyed the second book in Sarah Caudwell’s Hilary Tamar series quite a bit. The Shortest Way to Hades centres once more around the same group of lawyers, this time entangled with a case that each of them find themselves representing part of. It’s not quite as reliant on letters at first but then Serena heads off on a voyage and the case seems to follow her — and trouble does, too.

I’m a bit bemused to read about how fascinated other people are with trying to figure out what gender Hilary Tamar is meant to be. It’s intentionally ambiguous, and it’s also totally irrelevant. I’m not even going to participate in the debate — or hey, I view Hilary as a non-binary protagonist, now, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Ahem. Anyway. As I said, Hilary’s gender is totally irrelevant to the story, though they do get themselves a bit more involved in the mystery this time, actually following Serena to Greece in order to help untangle the problem.

The humour of the whole thing remains a light touch: it’s there, and woven throughout the whole story, but not in a way that gets too cringy or gets in the way. I’m not normally one for humour in stories, but it’s hard to describe quite how it works here. My best effort is: this book knows it’s clever and funny, but doesn’t keep trying to demand you laugh.

I’m eager to get the next book!

Rating: 4/5