I love Sarah Caudwell’s books but I always feel a little sad when I read them, as hilarious as they are. Because there are four and there will be no more. Ever.

Caudwell’s books focus on a bunch of yuppie British tax lawyers. The beautiful and perfect Serena. The sexy and irrepressible Julia. The unattainable – to Julia – Ragwort. The sophomoric Cantrip. And the senior of their crew, Timothy. They find themselves facing the usual challenges of young lawyers: being treated like puppies by their elders but also being expected to behave like adults; the torture of administrative staff; long hours; and the capricious whims of judges. Their tales are recounted, comedy-of-manners style, by Hilary Tamar, who was their tutor when they were younger. Hilary often comes up to London on tax law research, and finds themself (the stories are told first person, and you never find out Hilary’s gender) drawn into the hilarious hijinks that the crew ends up in, all while trying to behave like grown up tax lawyers. The answer, at the end of the book, is hilariously revealed to be related to… tax law! OMG too funny.

In this book, Julia goes on vacation to Venice, and much of the book is told through her letters, which are read aloud by one or another of the posse to the others, with raucous comments and explanations on her behavior or lack thereof. Julia, who is traveling with a tour group, develops a crush on, and waxes poetic about, a strikingly handsome young man who is also with her tour. She is determined to woo him and bed him. He, on the other hand, turns out to work for Julia’s arch-enemy, the Inland Revenue (British version of the IRS). Also on the tour are a suspiciously spurious Major and an artist’s agent who are hoping to snap up some cheap possessions from the estate of a British citizen who recently died in Venice.

“Well, I’m damned,” says Timothy, who has been distracted by work while the others sit around Julia’s letters in his office. “They’re pillaging the estate of my client’s great aunt.”

Eventually, Julia manages to seduce the hunk. And is then promptly arrested for his murder. Was he murdered because he was onto the shenanigans of the estate-pillagers? Or was something else happening? Something involving a guy named Bruce?

Timothy jets over to Venice to provide moral support (and protect his client’s great aunt’s estate) and, in addition to Julia’s letters – which they have been reading days after the events occurred, owing to the delayed postal service – they are now receiving updates from Timothy real-time, by phone.

This allows you to see events as perceived by Julia, Timothy, and as commented on by Ragwort, Cantrip, and Selena. Hilary represents the reader’s point of view, asking the dumb questions you would ask if you were there.

In this book, unlike Caudwell’s others, Hilary is the one who sees the truth first, and engineers the denouement.*

The ending will surprise you.

Unless, perhaps, you happen to work for the Inland Revenue.

I think the character I relate most to in these books is Julia. She is so smart and so naïve all at once. And she just wants to be a great tax lawyer and a good person and she’s so young. And she’s not afraid to make the first move on handsome young men even when they seem – and they do seem, for the most part – disinterested in her. And yet she persists. I also like the dry wit of Caudwell’s characters, when they are trying to be funny, and when they are trying even harder to be serious. I’d like to say that I learned a little something about British tax law – but alas, my brain refuses to retain the technicalities of it.

These books are hilarious and I am very sorry that Caudwell will write no more. She was extremely talented and I’m sorry she couldn’t find her way out of the darkness.

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^{*Oh that was far harder to spell than I remembered.}