Customer Reviews

Bring Forth Your Dead

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The book begins with an exhumation ,presided over by Superintendant John Lambert and involves the body of a man ,Edmund Craven ,who has been dead for over a year .Suspicion has arisen as the soundness of the original post mortem verdict -death by natural causes .The new post mortem reveals that he was in fact murdered by the administration of arsenic starting about 12 weeks prior to demise.Lambert and his assistant Sergeant Hook must investgate a crime that is over a year old.

The investigation starts at the home of the deceased ,which is still occupied by the housekeeper ,Mrs Lewis .She is a one of a small group of suspects which include the family of the deceased ,son David and daughter Angela , and a family friend and chess playing partner of the dead man an American named Walter Miller
David in particular has a strong motive -his late father opposed his plans to sell the family mansion for redevelopment and had threatened to cut him out of his will ,a decision that also impacted on Angela who is living in genteel poverty .Miller also has a family history that has seen conflict with the late Mr Craven
The main narrative is punctuated by passages narrated by the killer (un-named )in which he/she rejoices at the cleverness of the crime .

The solution is in the fair play tradition of the old masters -we are given all the clues needed to solve the matter .The writing is direct and unfussy with some evocative portraits of cold wintry landscapes and the characterisation is solid