Review: Rainbow’s End by Ellis Peters

by Chriss Cornish published: August 2, 2010 No Comments

This Book Is About

The sleepy village of Middlehope is suddenly jerked into life by nouveau rich antiques magnate Arthur Rainbow. In a whirlwind of activity he extravagantly refurbishes the Manor House, joins the Golf Club, Angling Society and Arts Council – and, in a ruthless coup, dislodges the old church organist to take over the position himself.

But for all his reforming zeal, the Middlehope community rejects him. And when Rainbow’s crushed body is found in the graveyard of St Eata’s church, there is very little surprise or sorrow – but much speculations to who the murderer could be. After all, there are so many candidates – from his young, beautiful, flirtations wife to the usurped organist and his mutinous choir. It falls upon Superintendent George Felse, newly promoted head of the Midshire CID, to solve this most perplexing murder.

My Thoughts On This Book

Rainbow’s End is a slim volume and a quick read but it grabs you from the outset and hangs on tight. It’s classic Ellis Peters and I really enjoyed it.

I think what I liked the most about the book is that the police detective isn’t really the main character. The primary character that the third-person narration follows is Bossie Jarvis, a bookish schoolboy who’s the son of a couple of the detective’s friends. The boy becomes the focus of much of the narration because he accidentally causes the murder when he fakes a medieval manuscript in order to embarrass antiques dealer Rainbow into leaving town.

When Bossie actually witnesses Rainbow’s murder he realizes that the old piece of vellum he used to make his fake must have been the real thing. The story becomes less a typical murder mystery and more a treasure hunting race by Bossie and his school chums to find the real cache of scrolls in order to capture Rainbow’s killer before he can kill Bossie, too.

That said, this isn’t a kid’s story and the third person narration does spend almost equal time on Superintendent Felse.

Ellis Peters is the author of the famous Cadfael mysteries set in medieval, English civil war era Shropshire (in England but near the Welsh border). Rainbow’s End is set in Wales and, though it isn’t a historical mystery, it does have some cool medieval details. Bossie has to research what Latin to use when faking the manuscript and the denouement takes place in the ruins of the local ancient abbey.

I would call this vintage fiction, though, since the book was first published in the late ’70s and the story appears to be set in the ’50s.

If you’re looking for a fun, quick read or something different in a murder mystery I can highly recommend Rainbow’s End, which I have read several times.