A Hovering of Vultures

By Robert Barnard

Susannah Sneddon had never received a great deal of fame or fortune from her novel-writing in the twenties and thirties. In the remote Yorkshire village of Micklewike, where she had lived on a run-down farm, she was now chiefly remembered for the violence of her demise – battered to death, apparently by her jealous brother, who then shot himself. That was back in 1932, and now there was a renewed surge of interest in the Sneddons, led by the shady publisher and entrepreneur Gerald Suzman. He had bought up the farm and formed the Sneddon Fellowship, with the declared aim of making the Sneddons’ reputation as a kind of twentieth-century Brontë family.

A motley collection of enthusiasts gathered in Micklewike for the inaugural meeting of the Sneddon Fellowship, including Charlie Peace, a young black detective constable sent to keep an eye on things. There was a suspicion that Suzman’s motives were not quite as purely literary as they seemed. And when Suzman was found lying dead with his head bashed in, a surprising number of possible reasons for his death emerged amongst the group of Sneddon followers.

Charlie and Superintendent Mike Oddie had to examine evidence both old and new as the strange case of the Sneddon literary heritage was gradually unravelled.

‘One of the deftest stylists in the field’ New York Times Book Review

‘This story is a beauty . . . enlivened by Barnard’s wit and his knowledge of the seedier side of literary affairs’ Birmingham Post

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Dec 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781447239857

Robert Barnard

Robert Barnard (1936-2013) was awarded the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Nero Wolfe Award, as well as the Agatha and Macavity awards. An eight-time Edgar nominee, he was a member of Britain's distinguished Detection Club, and, in May 2003, he received the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement in mystery writing. 

Reviews for A Hovering of Vultures

[kaycliff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Full of satirical references to Literary Societies, writers and publishing - including the fictitious publishers, Cowper-Hollins and The Untamed Shrew.

[condorena · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was Mark Twain who said "Write what you know." Robert Barnard who is a wonderful as well as prolific author may well have taken that advice because many of his books are about writers of various kinds. Indeed he wrote about 'The Death of a Mystery Writer",'The Case of the Missing Brontë', as well as about a historical writer in 'A fatal Attachment'.

In this mystery, AHOV the mystery surrounds a long dead brother and sister who wrote dreary literary works that are coming into fashion again. There has been a push to organize the fans as well as set up a museum. Detective Constable Charlie Peace is attending a conference at the new museum because the organizer Gerald Suzman is known to the police as a con man and so far his motives for resuscitating the interest in the dead siblings is not obvious.

Before things get very far murder enters the mix and Charlie has his job to do. Barnard's characters are so well drawn that the reader is engrossed in the story and and even gets to believe that the dead Sneddon siblings are real. I can recommend this book.