A Day for Dying: An Inspector Luke Thanet Mystery [Hardcover]

Dorothy Simpson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

When playboy Max Jeopard is killed at his own engagement party, Inspector Luke Thanet is called in to investigate and uncovers a host of suspects, including his fiance+a7e, a jealous brother, an ex-girlfriend, and the victim's future in-laws. 15,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The thirteenth police novel featuring Inspector Luke Thanet, who has to solve a mysteriously callous murder case--the prospective bridegroom at an upper-class engagement party is thrown into the swimming pool and left there to drown. Simpson lays out plenty of clues, from love letters to blackmail notes, revealing the victim to have been less than a gentleman, and his high class circle a mess of interconnected relationships. Thanet, of course, will discover whodunnit. The thrill comes in following him as he does so.

From Publishers Weekly

In his 13th appearance, following No Laughing Matter, Inspector Luke Thanet has ample opportunity to display the sympathetic and acute investigative technique that has earned a Silver Dagger award for the author of this British series. Dead is Max Jeopard, a handsome, outwardly charming playboy and travel writer found floating in the swimming pool at his own engagement party. Among the family and guests at the impressive family home of his fiancee, Tess Sylvester, Thanet finds many with both motive and opportunity for murder. Among them are the victim's brother Hartley, who was Tess's former boyfriend, and Anthea Greenway, who was dropped by Max when he took up with Tess. There's Tess herself, whose relationship with Max was volatile; her parents, each with reason to lament the prospect of Max as a son-in-law; Tess's schizophrenic brother, who escaped the watch of his nurse at the same time Max disappeared; and Gerald Argent, the man whom Tess spurned for Max. Thanet's deft probing reveals an increasingly ugly portrait of the victim and uncovers more than one secret and more than one crime in the lives, loves and tangled loyalties of the suspects. This is a solid, if unexceptional, offering from Simpson.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First US edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684815680
• ISBN-13: 978-0684815688
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,873,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent whodunit!, January 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Day for Dying: An Inspector Luke Thanet Novel (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) (Hardcover)

This is the first mystery by Dorothy Simpson where I actually figured out the culprit before Inspector Thanet. What I love about D. Simpson's books are the detail. Her characters are fully realized, you see them with all their faults and foibles. And this book is very timely, but I can't say more than that, because I'd spoil some of the mystery. Another thing I enjoy about D. Simpson's series, is that you really believe there is an Inspector Thanet. We're taken along with him when he goes home (I suggest you find the very first book and read all of them in sequence - because you find out about his wife and two children - their struggles in childrearing AND Thanet's problems in dealing with a wife who wants to work outside the home)as well as out and about interviewing suspects. D. Simpson's books are always very rich - with characters, motives, settings. I've never been to England, but with D. Simpson's talents for description, I'm there in Kent with Thanet. I can't wait to read her latest, which is coming out in February.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars softened with compassion, April 3, 2002

By 

Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Day for Dying: An Inspector Luke Thanet Mystery (Hardcover)

Dorothy Simpson writes excellent books in the British cozy-mystery genre, and, in a gentle style of her own, she introduces us to villains who are not so much evil as just prone to making mistakes. I've read all of her works, and I eagerly look forward to more.

She treats all of her characters, police detectice Thanet and those he must investigate, with a careful compassion and a gentle probing into motives and actions. Her novels are not psychological studies; instead they are journeys into wisdom as we learn to understand the hearts of all the characters, Thanet and his family included. I feel that her approach can be labeled "unique" in a genre which is usually so cookie-cutter repetitive. Treat yourself to reading this book, or any of her works!