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A DEADLY SICKNESS by John Penn

A DEADLY SICKNESS

By

Pub Date: Nov. 1st, 1985
Publisher: Scribners

No one is surprised by the death of old, very rich Sir Oliver Poston, ailing for months in his Cotswolds mansion. Only faithful manservant Tom Calindar mourns his going. Son Alan, a hard-drinking sponger, and greedy wife Diana sometimes party at the lodge on the estate grounds, usually in the company of Diana's feckless brother Guy, her lover Tony Dinsley and local businessman Frank Leder, along with Diana's innocent young half-sister Celia. Then, the seemingly accidental death of Tom Calindar and Frank Leder's suicide make police surgeon Dick Band uneasy and he reports his misgivings to Superintendent George Thorne (A Will to Kill). Celia, meanwhile, is upset by the change in Alan's personality, the disappearance of his beloved dog, Nelson, and the sudden appearance of Alan's London mistress, Nancy Naury, who persists in calling him Henry. All the bits and pieces here are pushed and shoved into place eventually, helped along by the astute Super. But, all in all, the story is slow-moving, clumsy and unredeemed by its mostly charmless characters.