Book Review : Cat and Mouse – A Mystery in Wales

This is one of the many British Library Crime Classics that are available. It’s noticeable how many of them feature parts of the UK not normally covered in the genre. This book is a good example. The story takes place in the fictional village of Pentre Trist near Swansea in South Wales.

Katinka Jones is an agony aunt for Girls Together magazine and when she visits Swansea she decides to pay a surprise visit to one of her regular correspondents called Amista who lives in Pentre Trist. Katinka arrives and immediately sticks out like a sore thumb, however she discovers that no one has heard of Amista though they do know a man called Carlyon, mentioned by Amista in her letters.

The house where Carlyon and presumably Amista lives is across the valley. Katinka has to get a lift across the river courtesy of a milkmaid and then walk up a path to the house set on its own up a mountain. If you’re sensing Gothic melodrama, then I think you’re right. Katinka is accompanied by an Inspector Chucky from Swansea who has some business at the house.

Anyway, Katinka and Chucky arrive and are ‘greeted’ by three odd characters who claim never to have heard of Amista. Their strange behaviour causes Katinka to leave the house as soon as she can, but she slips and hurts her ankle. She returns and has to spend the night during which some odd twists and turns occur. Katinka falls in love with Carylon quickly but she knows she has to leave as soon as she can, however this is easier said than done…