Despite many of Robertson’s trademark witty touches, the slapdash plotting, florid coincidences, and unbelievable motive of...
Senior solicitor Reggie Heath’s honeymoon with actress Laura Rankin turns into a criminal mess that cries out for the gifts of Sherlock Holmes.
Reggie, with Nigel, his brother and junior colleague, answers the letters benighted souls are still writing Sherlock Holmes. But the letter that precipitates this case is one Reggie doesn’t see till after it’s taken dramatic effect, a plea for Holmes to bring Scarecrow out to the village of Bodfyn, where something is terribly wrong. Scarecrow was her fellow students’ nickname for Laura when, as Laura Penobscott, she attended Bodfyn boarding school, and she’s the person who improbably takes custody of the letter. Since she and Reggie are already on the run from the paparazzi her disappointed suitor, Lord Buxton, has set on them to dog and trouble their every move, she has no compunctions about escaping from her paparazzi-infested wedding to Reggie aboard a tiny plane she flies to Bodfyn, where Mrs. Hatfield, her old drama teacher who’s artistic director to a regional theatrical company, beseeches her to step into the role of Lady Macbeth because Melanie, the actress originally cast in the role, has become unavailable. In fact Melanie’s not indisposed but murdered; her death is clearly the terrible wrong at Bodfyn; and there’s every indication that her killer has an eye on Laura as well. Her only hope is not her bridegroom, who’s worse than useless, but Siger, the inquisitive old busker with a history at the Baker Street Law Chambers (The Baker Street Jurors, 2016, etc.), who returns to sweep Lois, the Heaths’ secretary/clerk/receptionist, up with him in an equally charged and daffy journey to Bodfyn.
Despite many of Robertson’s trademark witty touches, the slapdash plotting, florid coincidences, and unbelievable motive of the culprit make this the weakest of his six après-Holmes pastiches. Wait till next year.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-06007-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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