Death Under Glass

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta. He is co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, author of The Salvation Army and
the Public, and editor of “Improved by Cult

Ostensibly a murder mystery, this novel is also a social satire.

Olga, the chief protagonist, is a St. John’s lawyer and recent
immigrant from Budapest (and therefore, one supposes, able to judge the
social politics with an outsider’s objectivity). Not only does she
tackle the mystery of a real-estate agent’s murder (at a party given
by a local socialite), but in doing so, she manages, as the blurb puts
it, “to navigate through the maze of local marital, ex-marital and
extramarital ties and offer opinions on the mix of old colonial
conservatism and new world brashness that constitutes St. John’s
society.”

Unfortunately, the novel’s plot is painfully predictable, its
characters are flat and uninteresting, and its action slow and grinding.
The style of writing is insipid: “Henry, in turn, appraised Olga. He
liked what he saw. Her dress hung with charm, swivelling softly around
her things when she moved. ... Olga was no spring chicken, but she had
flair about her, not to mention an exotic accent.” As for the social,
it is often off the mark and rather jejune. All in all, a rather tedious
novel.