The Bachelors

A barrister, a priest, a detective, a lovelorn Irishman, a handwriting expert, a heinous spiritual mediumthe very British bachelors of Muriel Sparks supreme 1960 novel come in every stripe. First found contentedly chatting in their London clubs and shopping at Fortnums, the cozy bachelors are not set to stay cozy for long. Soon enough, the men are variously tormenteddefrauded, stolen from, blackmailed, or pressed to attend horrid sancesand then plunged, all together, into the nastiest of lawsuits. At the center of that suit hovers pale, blank Patrick Seton, the medium. Meanwhile, horrors of every size plague the poor bachelorsfrom epileptic fits to forgeries, spiritualists foaming with protoplasm, and murderand each horror delights, lit up by Sparks uncanny wit, at once malicious, funny, and deadly serious.