Death on the Dragon's Tongue

 Death on the Dragon's Tongue (1982) by Margot Arnold (Petronelle Cook)

When an ailing friend calls on Sir Tobias Glendower, professor of Near Eastern and European Archaeology, to take his place at the site of a prehistoric burial monument (henge) in Brittany, Sir Toby has no idea that that he's going to land in the middle of another murder case--this one involving French politics Breton superstitions, witchcraft, and a transplanted American cult. Not to mention blackmail, drug-running, and kidnapping. And the kidnappee will be Sir Toby himself!

Sir Toby's friend Charles Latour was commissioned to examine and map the henge site when the French government decided to locate a nuclear reactor right there on the Britany coast. The local Bretons are none too keen to have the henge destroyed and the hopes (of the government) are that if the site can be properly examined and mapped that it can be moved intact. Sir Toby was more than happy to take up the job when Latour became ill; it gave him an excuse not to have to finish a long overdue excavation report. But he's not nearly as happy when local Breton superstition prevents him from having any help or when an insufferable government official by the name of Armand Dubois shows up to say that rather than the month or two of pottering about that Toby expects to have, a report will be due within a week. 

But then the officious little man is found murdered in a rather gruesome manner that the locals reserved for such enemies as the Germans who invaded during the last war. And Toby finds himself embroiled in another investigation. The equally officious Surete officer sent from Paris is ready to round up all the Bretons who opposed the reactor and he's even looking crosswise at Sir Toby. So Toby sends for his partner in previous crimes, Penny Spring, to help with the investigation. He wants her to come undercover and scope out the areas and people that he can't as the government-appointed archaeologist. But before he can meet up with her, he is kidnapped by a Breton nationalist group who think they'll be able to use the archaeologist as a lever against the installation of the nuclear reactor. 

Toby soon disabuses them of this idea and recruits them in the effort to solve the mystery. He's quite certain that the local cult (a transplant from 1960s America--complete with marijuana plants and a couple of violent 60s reactionaries) is somehow involved and one of the Bretons manages to infiltrate the fenced in grounds. But when that young man also winds up murdered, Toby and Penny are even more invested in finding the villain of the piece.

Though this particular installment of the Glendower/Spring mysteries is chock full of action and hole-in-corner activity, it didn't grab my attention quite as much as previous installments. Perhaps it's because Toby is hiding out ("kidnapped") for a great deal of it. Maybe it's because Penny doesn't show up until half-way through. Maybe it's because Toby's enlistment of the young Breton nationalist in his detecting plan winds up with the poor guy being murdered. Or it could just be my general reading blahs at the moment. Whichever (or whichever combination of these)--I struggled to keep interested in the sneaky little investigations going on. The wrap-up tried emulate Golden Age mysteries with a gathering of the suspects, but it lacked some of the "je ne sais quoi" that comes with a similar scene from the likes of Christie. A perfectly decent little mystery with a lot going on that should have grabbed my attention more firmly than it did--and if Goodreads is anything to go by it did grab others. ★★★ and 1/4.

First line: Toby Glendower was in a state of complete happiness akin to ecstasy; he snuggled down to the dry, withered grass and looked lovingly at the large granite boulders above and on three sides of him.

Last line: "Some things never change."
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Deaths: 4 (two stabbed; one attacked by animal; one natural)