A house party at an English country home is going on. The guests are at dinner when they are startled by a woman’s shriek of horror, followed by the report of a pistol. They flock upstairs, to find Mrs Heredith, a bride of three months, the victim of murder. The police start investigations which result in the arrest of Hazel Rath, the daughter of the housekeeper. Altho she pleads innocence there are many suspicious things in her conduct which she refuses to explain. Philip Heredith, husband of the murdered girl, does not believe her guilty, and hires a private detective, who suspects Captain Nepcote, a house guest at the time of the murder. Then, from an unexpected quarter, comes a clue to the actual criminal, who had planned his crime with such diabolical skill and cunning, aided by chance, that it was only by as strange a chance that he was ever discovered.
“A detective story above the average, though to some readers it will seem too long drawn out and to others too tragic.”
+ Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21
“The details are rather gruesome, but the plot is one of the best of the year.”
+ Cleveland p107 D ’20 40w
“Mr Rees has set before the reader a mystery whose blind and baffling qualities are likely to puzzle and lead astray the most astute and skillful of lovers of detective fiction. For the author writes well, with a good, forceful, interesting style, makes graphic and pleasing pictures of his background, and puts vitality and individuality into the delineation of his characters.”
+ N Y Times 25:26 Jl 25 ’20 620w
“The book is better written than the average crime tale.”
+ Outlook 125:647 Ag 11 ’20 50w