Mrs Mohr Goes Missing

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones.com
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 21 Jun 2019 | Archive Date 10 Mar 2019

Talking about this book? Use #MrsMohrGoesMissing #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

It is the year 1893. Thirty-eight-year-old Zofia Turbotyńska has assured her husband’s rise through the ranks to university professor and is now looking for something to fill her long days at home. To stave off the boredom and improve her social standing, she decides to organise a charity raffle. To recruit the requisite patronage of elderly aristocratic ladies, she visits Helcel House, a retirement home run by nuns.

When two of the residents are found dead, Zofia discovers by chance that her real talents lie in solving crimes. The examining magistrate’s refusal to take seriously her insistence that foul play is involved spurs her on to start her own investigation, recruiting her quick-witted servant Franciszka as her assistant. With her husband blissfully unaware of her secret activities, Zofia ruthlessly follows the clues and gradually closes in on the truth.

Drawing on Agatha Christie and filled with period character and charm, Mrs Mohr Goes Missing vividly recreates life in turn-of-the-century Poland, confronting a range of issues from class prejudice to women’s rights, and proving that everyone is capable of finding their passion in life, however unlikely it may seem.

It is the year 1893. Thirty-eight-year-old Zofia Turbotyńska has assured her husband’s rise through the ranks to university professor and is now looking for something to fill her long days at home...


Advance Praise

'An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime.' Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 winner of the Man Booker International prize

'An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime.' Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 winner of the Man Booker International prize


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781786075437
PRICE CA$37.50 (CAD)
PAGES 320

Average rating from 10 members


Featured Reviews

A really deliciously smart and amusing novel. Zofia Turbotyńska is a wonderful firecracker of a snobby protagonist whose shameless social climbing and desperate craving for something more satisfying in life were both utterly endearing. While a lot of modern novels which try to walk the line between comedy and mystery often fall into farce, Zofia's adventures were as cleverly amusing as a Jane Austen and as intriguingly mysterious as an Agatha Christie. The 19th century Polish setting was constructed with a light and elegant touch that was as entertaining as it was believable, and the translation was light and really quite delightful. I really look forward to seeing what Zofia and Maryla Szmyczkowa do next.

Was this review helpful?

This is a translated historical mystery from Maryla Szymiczkowa, a refreshing take in its historical European setting on the classic age of golden crime with a structure that echoes the likes of Christie, including the finale with its assembled cast of interested parties and suspects where the truth and a killer is revealed by the protagonist, 38 year old Zofia Turbotynskya. She is married to Ignacy, a university medical professor, whose career promotions have been engineered by the wily Zofia. Set in 1893 in the Poland and the city of Crakow of the time, a melting pot of diverse ethnicities, languages and religion that reflects the regional history and culture. It took me a little time to warm to the flawed Zofia, she engages in familial rivalries, determined to improve her position, a name dropper, with every intention of climbing the social ladder, in many ways this novel is a study in the social manners and class divisions of the time in this part of Europe.

Zofia writes poetry, which has yet to receive the public acclaim that she feels it deserves and is engaging in organising a charity raffle, seeking the patronage of elderly aristocratic women to raise her social and public profile in society. To this end she visits Helcel House, a retirement home run by Mother Zaleska. Zofia finds herself distracted by the disappearance of a judge's widow, Mrs Mohr, and is instrumental in the discovery of her body. This is just the beginning of the murders and disappearances at Helcel House, where investigating magistrate Klossowitz is dismissive of Zofia and her input. Aided by her cook, Franciszka, Zofia develops a taste for poking about in other peoples' business, whilst keeping her husband in the dark about what she is doing. She is a force of nature, with a talent for cajoling the truth from witnesses and suspects alike, not above engaging in underhand machinations, and making extensive use of her wide ranging social contacts to get to the complicated truth of the case.

The author includes some real life figures from this historical era, and does a stellar job of evoking the atmosphere of the period and the location with her rich descriptions of Crakow, its social and political class divisions, culture, religion and attitudes of women. The more I read of Zofia, the more I began to like her, sure there are times when she is distinctly unlikeable, but as a woman of the times, there were not many opportunities for women to make their mark or to develop their skills outside of the home. She begans to feel increasingly confident in what is a man's world as she begins to get results from all the efforts she expends on the case, although none of it is publicly acknowledged, and she is hiding her successes from Ignacy. This is a wonderfully quirky and entertaining read from Maryla Szymiczkowa, which I recommend highly to those looking for a slightly different take on the classic crime tradition with its unusual location of Crakow in the tail end of the 19th century. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: