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Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
It seemed rather clear to me, although it was not directly said, that Brat was the son of Walter Ashby and the young cook in Gloucestershire.
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I agree; I thought that was made quite clear. Both parents are now dead, so no further confirmation could be had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
In the beginning, I had been thinking that perhaps Brat/Patrick was the real thing and had somehow forgotten his former identity. It wasn't until page 43 that a second possibility arose in my mind: Perhaps Simon was so sure "Patrick" was an impostor because he killed the real Patrick when they were boys. Of course, we all now know that was indeed the case, but I still enjoyed the ride.
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Agreed! Although the very explicit childhood memories from the orphanage made me fairly sure that Brat hadn't merely had amnesia. I still wasn't sure till Simon indicated that "he knew".
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Originally Posted by Dazrin
I was disappointed with the mystery but really enjoyed the book overall. Tey did an excellent job in her descriptions of all the characters and what was going on that figuring out the mystery early didn't bother me much.
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This is a mystery where you DO pretty much know who ... it's HOW that is in question. I was a bit disappointed that HOW was not spelled out to us more completely (did S hit P on the head, or what?) but I thought that perhaps "gruesome" details like that were more normally omitted, in "genteel" books of this period. Death being from a head wound rather than the fall implies this is how it was done. But that was a tiny detail, nearly glossed over, in the details during the healing at the end.
Making Brat a cousin also means that he still has the Ashby last name .... and when Eleanor marries him, there will still be Ashbys living in the house. To the relief of all! Also, you note that "each generation tends to have a wastrel" has still held true, because it was Simon in the current generation.
I enjoyed the book!