Three short reviews: Bent is the Bow, Whatever Happened to...?, Wycliffe and the House of Fear

     Geoffrey Trease. Bent is the Bow (1967) One of a projected series of books intended to help kids “To grow in imagination”, etc. This story reads like the opening sequence of a longer work about the Welsh border wars in the time of Henry IV and Owen Glendower Ca. 1400). The narrator, Hugh Vaughan, and his sister Megan are invited to be “guests” of a neighbouring English lord who appears to want to eliminate the boy so that his sister will become heiress, and hence marriageable to his weedy son, Stephen. The story ends on a positive note, with the children restored to their mother, but there is clearly much more to tell. I don’t know if Trease ever finished this tale. Illustrations by Charles Keeping. I’ll pass it on to Bria, and see what she thinks of it. It’s a “chapter book.” ** (2005)

     A. Mourby. Whatever Happened to...? (1997) Just what the title says, except that it’s fictional characters’ afterlives that Mourby has discovered. Most are 1st person accounts by the character or a related one. All come to a bad end, except the Big Bad Wolf, who is protected by bureaucratic ass-covering and myopia. Amusing, but not a keeper. I’ll give it to a Deserving Relative, who may pass it on as (s)he wishes. ** (2005)

     W. J. Burley. Wycliffe and the House of Fear (1995) Wycliffe, convalescing in a cottage rented from the Kemps, is drawn into the investigation when Kemp’s wife is murdered. The Kemps, a dysfunctional family, abound in suspects. Roger, the current holder of the estate, is a weakling with too much family pride, which has led him to do stupid things. Wycliffe uncovers the truth, of course, after a nice meander round and through family relationships and history. A pleasant entertainment. A more thorough treatment of Wycliffe’s relationship with his wife would add to the story, which as it stands is little more than a well done puzzle in the English manner. **½
(2005)