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THE MASSINGHAM AFFAIR by Edward Grierson

THE MASSINGHAM AFFAIR

By

Pub Date: March 1st, 1963
Publisher: Doubleday

A successor to The Second Man, a quietly assured prosecution of a criminal case, this time pursues its search for the truth and the identity of ""the other man"" in a proceeding which takes place both in and out of court and over many years. The robbery of a Rectory and the racas to follow in 1891 is quickly settled up and written off when two poachers are found guilty and sentenced for life on the rather flimsy identification made by the Rector's daughter, Miss Verney. However Justin Drury, a conscientious solicitor, is not as easily satisfied and eight years later has cause, an accusation and a confession, to reopen the case which Miss Verney violently opposes. The murder, or suicide, of one of the two men now idling in jail and the additional evidence secured, occasions a second trial and another decision which will again be reversed- in Justin's mind- some thirty years later.... Grierson is a discreet and literate writer, and the story, which has its venue in the flummery of the Victorian era, is handled with careful, canny expertise. A dual market here.