SOME DIE ELOQUENT

by Catherine Aird ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 1980

When Beatrice Wansdyke, chemistry mistress at a private girls' school, dies of her diabetes (apparently), everyone's surprised to find a quarter of a million pounds in her hitherto-modest bank account. Laconic Detective-Inspector Sloan investigates, soon discovering that Beatrice's death was certainly unnatural (water substituted for insulin) and inevitably directing his attention to the heirs--a nice niece nurse and two nephews, one well-to-do, the other ne'er-do-well (and currently on the lam to boot). Admittedly, there's a fairly neat--if excessively hinted-at--solution down the road; but the appeal here, as always with Aird, is really in the dry drolleries and mutedly ironic queries of Inspector Sloan (whose wife is seen at various stages of childbirth throughout). And though the settings this time (mostly the local hospital) don't offer as much room for fun as the academic milieu of A Parting Breath (1978), there's still a good measure of low-key smiles (never a guffaw) for fanciers of stolid-British, understated amusement.

Pub Date: March 7, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION