The Yellow Room Conspiracy, by Peter Dickinson

Retrieved from: my library
0892965568, 1994
Suggested by: The List
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 10 Interest, 7 Fun

I always forget how much I love Peter Dickinson, which is one reason I (mostly subconsciously) don't read him back-to-back. His stories are just all of a piece and consistently good. They transport me, usually to another time, certainly to another place.

In this book, the transportation is back to the years surrounding World War II, up to about 1955. For those of us born well after the war, and in another place, it is sometimes hard to remember what a watershed the war years were, how much changed because of it. And, in truly confusing fashion, the book starts in the 'now' and then cuts back to 'then' between two aging lovers, both of whom have always believed the other one killed their friend Gerry. Gerry, who was his best friend, and her erstwhile lover, the one she always returns to, if only in her mind.

This is a mystery as only Dickinson writes: a locked-room story, a deep character study of several individuals, a decidedly twisted humor, with Time and Place as much characters as the people, and betrayal of personal and national trusts. At the end, Gerry's death not only brings his life down, but destroys a family treasure and marks the end of an era that really ended decades before.

The Yellow Room: part of the house but not really; approachable easily through the proper hall door; and not-so-easily through a labyrinthine and ultimately destructive hidden staircase; not quite on the same level as the rest of the house; the place where The Men retire to talk after dinner; dangerous but deceptively homey.

Complicated story, wonderfully 'sticky' (as in "stuck in my head") characters, good history lesson.