The Salisbury Manuscript

The Salisbury Manuscript by Philip Gooden is this writers first foray into the world of the Victorian whodunnit and a very creditable effort it is. This is not his first novel, however, as he is the author of a series of Elizabethan murder mysteries. This book opens with a murder on a bleak hillside on the outskirts of Salisbury which is the site of an ancient hill fort and burial mound. The action then turns to the main character in the book, Tom Ansell, a young lawyer from a London firm which represents a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. Ansell is despatched to Salisbury to receive a manuscript from Canon Slater which comprises the rather compromising memoirs of his late father. Slater requires that these be locked away until after his death. Needless to say this unfortunate event occurs much sooner than the Canon anticipates. Ansell is suspected and arrested and in order to clear his name begins to make his own enquiries among the many unusual characters within the Slater familly and the community that lives within the shadow of the great Cathedral. In this he is assisted by his fiancee, Helen Scott, who is a very independant minded and foeceful character for the period in which the book is set. Would an unmarried middle class young lady be given the freedom that Miss Scott has in the eighteen seventies? Perhaps it is churlish to mention this when Mr Gooden has provided us with such an entertaining story. I am sure that Mr Gooden plans more adventures of Tom Ansell and Helen Scott and if they are as good as this they will be worth waiting for.