I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
The Corpse in Oozak's Pond
by
Charlotte MacLeod
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Mysterious Press on March 1, 1987 and has 213 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Rest You Merry, The Luck Runs Out, Wrack and Rune, Something the Cat Dragged In, The Curse of the Giant Hogweed
Sixth in the Peter Shandy cozy mystery series set in the 1970s in Massachusetts and revolving around Professor Shandy, an amateur sleuth. The focus is on a murder, a re-enactment from the past.
My Take
It’s still hard for me to believe the setting is in the 1970s. The students are so decent! And MacLeod’s writing makes me think 1950s.
I do have to laugh about Svenson’s penny pinching, all of which gets plowed into salaries, better food and student housing, and lower tuition rates. Just the kind of guy we need these days.
MacLeod pokes fun at a lot of things, including that Massachusetts twang, as one particular native snips up her r’s and uses them up on words like sawring, drawring, and idear. She also likes to make fun of Sieglinde’s love of herring. As for the soda battle at the gas station . . . Hey, it’s high stakes in Balaclava.
That lawsuit has everyone a’tither and harking back to old family stories about the Bugginses. MacLeod does go back in time in The Corpse in Oozak’s Pond, going over the family lineage and yes, their stories. I did enjoy the tale of how Balaclava started the college and his passion for farming.
MacLeod uses third person global subjective point-of-view, mostly from Shandy’s perspective. A particularly “interesting” perspective comes at the end with that unexpected reveal.
There’s lots of running around, watching people, and plenty of family stories with a range of characters.
I gotta say, it was a relief to get back to MacLeod’s usual writing in The Corpse in Oozak’s Pond.
The Story
The rural town of Balaclava greets Groundhog Day as an excuse for one last cold-weather fling. The students and faculty of the local agricultural college drink cocoa, throw snowballs, and, when the temperature allows, ice skate.
Oozak’s Pond is not quite frozen this year, though, and as the Groundhog Day celebrations reach their peak, the students see someone bobbing through the ice. The drowning victim is long past help, though; he’s badly decomposed and dressed in an old-fashioned frock coat with a heavy rock in each pocket.
First on the scene is Peter Shandy, horticulturalist and, when the college requires it, detective. But solving this nineteenth-century murder will require Helen’s expertise in local history, as Peter dives into a gilded-age mystery that cloaks secrets that remain potent enough to kill.
The Characters
Peter Shandy, a professor of agronomy and compulsive counter, is becoming known for solving mysteries. Helen Shandy, the curator of the Buggins Collections, is his wife (Rest You Merry, 1). Jane Austen is their cat.
Balaclava Agricultural College was . . .
. . . founded in 1850? by Balaclava Buggins, who invented the Balaclava Boomerang. Nausicaa Buggins was his wife. Their one son, Huxford, was killed in the Civil War.
Habakkuk Buggins had been the father of Abelard and Balaclava. Abelard, Balaclava’s brother, had four children: Ichabod, the poetry-inclined Corydon, Belial (of the Buggins Collection), and a daughter, Durella. She married Fortitude Lumpkin, and Dalbert was their son — he thought of harnessing the water power. Ichabod married Prudence Plover and the house Abelard built as a wedding present is now the house where Trevelyan and Beatrice live. Knightsbridge was Corydon’s nephew and Trev’s father.
That ancient con artist, Trevelyan, and Beatrice Buggins have two sons, twins and a daughter: the fussy Bracebridge “Brace” and the bullying Bainbridge “Bain” and Persephone. Minerva Mink had been taking care of Trev and Beatrice; previously she had worked for Congressman Sills and his wife. Amelia had been Minerva’s aunt. Patter, Potter, Patter, and Foote are attorneys for the heirs of the late Ichabod Buggins.
August Caesar Buggins, a.k.a. Gus, drowned in Oozak’s Pond back in 1904. Henry J Doe had been a mysterious stranger back then.
Today, Thorkjeld Svenson is the president of the college and its head thunderbolt hurler, a descendant of Vikings. Sieglinde is his imposing wife. Birgit is their fifth daughter who is married to a former honor student Hjalmar Olafssen (The Luck Runs Out) with a new baby.
Professor Philip Proble is the head librarian; Grace is his wife. She’s also a direct descendant of Balaclava. Lizanne is their daughter. Grace’s brothers are Trowbridge, a geologist, and Boatwright, the captain of a steamer with the Great Magnificent steamship line. Dr Brinkle had been the previous head librarian. Mrs Horrigan (her husband was the comptroller back then) raised the alarm when Grace’s mother keeled over. Judith became Grace’s stepmother.
Professor Daniel Stott is head of the animal husbandry department — he’s married to Iduna (The Luck Runs Out, 2) . Professor Emeritus John Enderble is an expert on local fauna; Mary is his wife. John has an uncle Elijah, the one with the buttons. Mrs Mouzouka is the head of the cookery department. Pam Waggoner teaches native arts. She lives with Shirley Wrenne and both of them are associate professors. Professor Timothy Ames is Peter’s best friend whose son and wife, Royall and Laurie, have moved in with him (The Luck Runs Out). Professor Joad is in the chemistry department. Professor Jim Feldster and his gossipy wife, Mirelle, are the Shandys’ next-door neighbors.
Dr Melchett is the college physician. Dr Fotheringay is another physician. Clarence and Silvester Lomax, brothers, are the joint chiefs of the college security department (The Luck Runs Out). Purvis Mink is part of college security; Persephone, a.k.a. Sephy, is his wife. Minerva is Purve’s aunt. Rosalinda is Purve’s mother.
Balthazar is the college’s prize boar. Balaclava Beauregard is the college groundhog. The college Blacks include Odin, Thor, Hoenir, and Heimdallr.
Fred Ottermole is Balaclava Junction’s police chief. Edna Mae is his wife, and they have four children. Budge Dorkin and Frank Lomax (Clarence’s boy) are officers. Harry Goulson is the local mortician and married to Arabella, who writes the paper’s society news; Goulson’s Funeral Parlor is one of the oldest establishments.
Mike Woozle has the blue cottage although he’s currently a guest of the state. Oscar Plantagenet owns the gas station. Zack Woozle is related to Mike and married to Marietta Hudson Woozle (Hudson’s niece), who’s a proofreader for the Pied Pica Press. Ruthie is Marietta’s friend. Hesperus Hudson had been friends with Trevelyan’s sons and is now the worse for wear. Arbolene Woozle had a red-hot affair.
Mrs Betsy Lomax, who’s related to most everyone in town, cleans for the Shandys and a number of other professors. She’s taken on Professor Ungley’s cat, Edmund — he likes to save the marshmallow for last (Something the Cat Dragged In, 4). Hilda is Henny Horsefall’s aunt (Wrack and Rune, 3), and she’s moved to Sweden *eyebrow waggle*. Captain Amos, leaving the Hippocampus behind, has taken over the family farriery at Forgery Point (The Luck Runs Out). Yvette is his wife, and it sounds as if the Flackleys are promoting DIY projects. The Flackleys have two sons and a daughter studying animal husbandry. The Jackmans and their four children, who include Dickie and Wendy, are Peter and Helen’s next-door neighbors on the Crescent. Gunnar Gaffson is a property developer with a bad rep (Wrack and Rune). Charlie Ross runs a garage where those on the Crescent can leave their cars.
Cronkite Swope is a reporter for the Balaclava County Weekly Fane and Pennon newspaper. His mother’s cousin, Lucy, embroidered some pillowcases for them. Mr Droggins is the editor. I’m not sure how Zack Hoover relates to the story. Erna Milien had an unearned reputation back in the day. The College Arms is a boardinghouse run by Mrs Blore. Jack Pointer seems to be in charge of the turkey coops. Margery tends bar at the Dirty Duck.
Oozak’s Pond, a.k.a. the Skunk Works Reservoir, is an oversized puddle above the methane plant and necessary for the electrical plant to produce. The Wash Pond is famous for having been the “laundry” facilities at the start of the college.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a dark chocolate background with a thin silver banner at the top with the publisher’s information in black. Another banner is at the bottom. The author’s name is below this in white. The central graphic is two blue overlapping circles with pale blue flowers centered inside. The title is below this in blue. Below this is the series info in white.
The title is literal, as it’s The Corpse in Oozak’s Pond that starts it all off.
