Murder of a lady a Scottish mystery Anthony WYNNE 9780712356237 Books
Download As PDF : Murder of a lady a Scottish mystery Anthony WYNNE 9780712356237 Books
Murder of a Lady
Murder of a lady a Scottish mystery Anthony WYNNE 9780712356237 Books
The setting is a castle-like mansion on a loch in Scotland. Inside her bedroom behind a locked door and latched widows, an old lady is viciously stabbed and dies of shock. Miss Mary Gregor was a woman full of virtue and generosity. Who would have wanted to murder such a good woman? And how could anyone have gotten to her?An amateur detective is already on the scene. Doctor Hailey, friend of the first official to arrive, is in high repute among the elite in medical and criminological circles. But his observations are soundly rejected by the detective sent to investigate. The detective is a young man who puts all his faith in details. He is eventually replaced by a Frenchified detective in love with his own theories, which he manages to find evidence to support.
The contrast between the laid-back style of Dr. Hailey and the two frenetic and bullheaded detectives is very entertaining. Hailey believes in considering the character of victim and suspects, and as he follows this line, an amazing family history emerges...
Anthony Wynne, I learned from the short but excellent introduction, specialized in locked room mysteries and death by invisible agent. In this book he presents us with a cunningly contrived puzzle, made all the more gripping by the personal dramas of the characters. Love, pride and jealousy all come into play, as do the superstitious fears of the Highlanders who suspect the presence of vengeful supernatural beings lurking in the waters of the loch.
I loved Murder of a Lady, despite its unlikely contrivances. The personalities are all so engaging. The tense atmosphere in the old Scottish household is so well portrayed. And Dr. Hailey is such an old-fashioned charmer! I hope British Library Crime Classics will see fit to reprint more mysteries by Anthony Wynne.
Product details
|
Tags : Murder of a lady: a Scottish mystery [Anthony WYNNE] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Murder of a Lady,Anthony WYNNE,Murder of a lady: a Scottish mystery,British Library Publishing Division,0712356231
People also read other books :
- Wishbone Becareful What You Wish For (Audible Audio Edition) Brooklyn Hudson Jean Brassard Cherry Hill Publishing Books
- The Fucking Time Machine And The Titanic edition by Nin Cox Literature Fiction eBooks
- Soltrey eBook Brian Brown
- The Rise of Silas Lapham edition by William Dean Howells Reference eBooks
- The Diary of a Nobody edition by George Grossmith Literature Fiction eBooks
Murder of a lady a Scottish mystery Anthony WYNNE 9780712356237 Books Reviews
Thank you Anthony Wynne. Great story.
Very ponderous, hard to follow or figure out because it is really based on a time long past, the customs of which are obscure.
perfect dour Scottish mystery, the old clan, the atmosphere of the lochs and a locked room mystery that no one can solve. beautiful writing.
I've read so many fast paced mysteries I had forgotten how much I missed getting to know all the characters Buried family secrets and individual struggles give life to each character and in the end to the murderer. I never came close to solving the mystery and the ending was a complete surprise.
Major Hamish Gregor lives in Dachlan Castle, on the Argyllshire Highland coast. He's a widower with one son, daughter-in-law and grandson. And a sister, Mary, who keeps his house and to whom he's devoted "Mary Gregor hadn't an enemy in the world.... Even tramps and tinkers turned to bless her as she passed."
But somebody had something against Mary. For late one August night, she's found dead in her bedroom from a terrible wound. But there's almost no blood around the body, and the doors and windows were firmly locked. As a matter of fact, they had to get a saw and cut the lock out of her bedroom's sturdy wooden door to reach her.
Who would want to kill a saint. And how did they do it?
"Murder of a Lady" is a classic-style locked room mystery, originally published in 1931. It's been re-issued by Poison Pen Press. I've enjoyed several of the books in this publisher's British Library Crime Classics series. But this mystery is quite average for me.
It has some nice writing, such as this complaint about a policeman "The man's a fusser.... Nothing must escape him. And so everything escapes him. He's always trying to hold a bunch of sparrows in one hand while he plucks them with the other." Or this description of the castle grounds "The small coin of birch leaves a-jingle in the wind, light as the sequins on a girl's dress."
But the writing is old-fashioned in that there is a lot of explaining of the detectives' (police as well as the amateur) thought processes and musings. There's some repetition and too-used turns of phrases. To be fair, maybe they weren't too-used back in 1934. Lastly, I couldn't quite sink my teeth into the rather melodramatic plotting. There's some good exploration of human nature, but the package didn't excite me.
All in all, for me this was a bit better than just OK. I rate it 3.4 stars, rounded down to 3.
Happy Reader
This has to be the worst mystery I have ever read. I will sum up the reasons there is an excess of repetition; each character has tremendous, dramatic facial expressions; the amateur sleuth has an eyeglass which he keeps dropping out of his eye and replacing, plus he takes a lot of snuff; the whodunit aspect, so crucial to any mystery, turns out to be weirder than the late-to-the-plot, let's toss it in, why not of the possibility of the murder being caused by supernatural forces. Then, the murder weapon itself is absolutely unbelievable, and, to top it all off, it ends abruptly, with no mention made of what will happen to two of the main characters. I love this series and will no doubt buy all the various books Crime Club prints, but this one will be donated to some other poor soul, someone I don't have to apologize to in person.
This novel was written back in the thirties, I think, by an author I've never heard of. I had high hopes, being a fan of G. Heyer and Ngio Marsh. Before reprinting, it should have been edited. The main character is a doctor and you get kind of an idea that he has solved previous crimes or is some way famous. Not enough is said about this though, a definite weakness in the book. Like some of Agatha Christie's novels, important clues are never mentioned, so it's a little frustrating that this doctor gets to see things the reader doesn't learn about until the end. The characters are deeply flawed and not very likable. A great mystery it is not; an interesting look at the writing style of the times, it is.
The setting is a castle-like mansion on a loch in Scotland. Inside her bedroom behind a locked door and latched widows, an old lady is viciously stabbed and dies of shock. Miss Mary Gregor was a woman full of virtue and generosity. Who would have wanted to murder such a good woman? And how could anyone have gotten to her?
An amateur detective is already on the scene. Doctor Hailey, friend of the first official to arrive, is in high repute among the elite in medical and criminological circles. But his observations are soundly rejected by the detective sent to investigate. The detective is a young man who puts all his faith in details. He is eventually replaced by a Frenchified detective in love with his own theories, which he manages to find evidence to support.
The contrast between the laid-back style of Dr. Hailey and the two frenetic and bullheaded detectives is very entertaining. Hailey believes in considering the character of victim and suspects, and as he follows this line, an amazing family history emerges...
Anthony Wynne, I learned from the short but excellent introduction, specialized in locked room mysteries and death by invisible agent. In this book he presents us with a cunningly contrived puzzle, made all the more gripping by the personal dramas of the characters. Love, pride and jealousy all come into play, as do the superstitious fears of the Highlanders who suspect the presence of vengeful supernatural beings lurking in the waters of the loch.
I loved Murder of a Lady, despite its unlikely contrivances. The personalities are all so engaging. The tense atmosphere in the old Scottish household is so well portrayed. And Dr. Hailey is such an old-fashioned charmer! I hope British Library Crime Classics will see fit to reprint more mysteries by Anthony Wynne.
0 Response to "≫ PDF Free Murder of a lady a Scottish mystery Anthony WYNNE 9780712356237 Books"
Post a Comment