The Nebuly Coat

By: J. Meade Falkner Peter

Narrated by: Peter Newcombe Joyce

A chilling tale of suspense with a puzzling mystery at the heart of the story.

Architect Edward Westray is sent by his firm to restore Cullerne Minster. The young man believes that more work is needed to secure the bell tower, but his warnings go unheeded. A fellow lodger, the church organist Sharnall, is investigating the belief of the late Martin Joliffe, the landlady's brother, that he, Joliffe, was the rightful heir to the Blandamer title and estates.

Sharnall dies in circumstances which he had predicted and confided to Westray, and the architect continues this search into the nobleman's history - much to his Lordship's displeasure. With little experience of life beyond his profession, the young man discovers the truth and finds himself on a knife-edge of self-doubt in which his senses of honour and tradition are at odds with one another.

Life is no longer black or white, but grey as the crumbling stone of the minster, which, in a thrilling finale, threatens to come crashing down upon him.

Public Domain (P)2011 Assembled Stories

New favorite author

Every time I tried to look up what The Nebuly Coat (1903) is about, I came away with no clearer picture than before, except the impression that it centered on architecture. So I was bracing myself for lengthy descriptions full of lintels and pilasters when I picked up the book. I knew I finally had to. I’m a huge fan of Moonfleet, the boys’ adventure story by the same author. It’s in my top ten.

This one is indeed a curious blend of genres that are hard to put your finger on, but all of them friendly and vaguely familiar—not quite a straight murder mystery or thriller, not quite a comedy or sentimental tale. There are gothic family secrets (the story is set in the 1840s), local lore, and quirky townsfolk. There are scenes that seem out of a blockbuster movie (I loved the part where the young architect, alone among a festive crowd, watches against a large-scale disaster). Yet much of the plot is in the subtext. On the surface it may seem not a lot is going on, except Falkner leaves continual clues to the reader that keep up the intrigue. Where the suspense flags, the breezy writing keeps the pages turning. The West Country setting is really the main attraction: the cathedral town on the seacoast, the organ loft, the pouring rain and turtle soup.

Inasmuch as I consider Moonfleet a perfect masterpiece of concision, I was surprised at how stretched thin or lazy a few sections here are, particularly the rushed way Falkner delivers the backstories, cramming them unnaturally into the mouths of his chatty characters. But the bad parts are somehow inoffensive. The town of Cullerne is a delightful place to sojourn, and you will relish the frequent mysterious and spooky turns and superb prose. I’m sad that Falkner—novelist, poet, international arms dealer, antiquarian, church librarian, paleographer, historian, and medal recipient from the pope—didn’t write more.

Thanks to Peter Joyce for bringing this little-known treasure to life, instead of doing, say, a 20th rendition of Great Expectations. Top-notch narration.