Grace and Janice meet in Holloway prison. On their release, they develop a scheme to rob old ladies. The pair pretend to be from social services and inveigle themselves into single pensioners’ homes by suggesting they can increase their benefits. They then drug them with sleeping pills and rob them of their valuables and any cash they can find.
Following her 1943 debut, The Least of These, British author Celia Dale wrote 13 novels and a collection of short stories. Though she’s often described as a crime writer, what is striking about her final book, Sheep’s Clothing (1988 and now reprinted), is the vivid characterisation, attention to detail and clean, unadorned prose.
Grace, the 60-year-old mastermind behind the scam, is a terrific creation – hard as nails and coolly calculating: “It was a livelihood which comprised skill, nerve, an understanding and manipulation of human nature and risk. The risk made Grace Bradby’s cold blood run warmer and faster; deep out of sight behind her calm facade, the stalking, the hunt, the kill thrilled her.” Janice, half her age, “a tall, dreamy girl of no particular looks or preference”, is the perfect foil: “a jellyfish in a tepid sea”.
When Grace settles on a new victim, Conroy Robinson, a bachelor about to retire, she almost comes unstuck. He lives with his mother, Marion, another formidable character – a former actor, surrounded by photographs of herself, who likes nothing better than talking about her illustrious career.
Dale deftly immerses us in each character’s milieu: Radio 2 “sniggered away” in the background; a Charles and Di mug sits on a table. Her clever use of idioms, such as “muggins”, “codswallop”, “wally” and “belt up”, perfectly reflect personalities. Grace and Janice are chilling predators; it’s their ordinariness that is so disturbing. In her 70s when she wrote Sheep’s Clothing, Dale was clearly aware of the vulnerabilities of ageing, yet writes with a light touch and a sly humour in the book’s final twist.
• Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale is published by Daunt Books (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
