Customer Reviews

A Detective at Death's Door

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H R F Keating is a much-respected English writer, a champion for and skilled practitioner in detective fiction since the early 1960s. Most famous for his Inspector Ghote novels, he here adds another to a more recent series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens. It is Harriet Martens herself who is at death's door. She is a recovering victim of a serial poisoner who kills by slipping aconitine into his victims' drinks. Her recovery is slow and difficult but her determination to identify the killer is strong.
Keating pays generous homage to Dame Agatha Christie, who he knew personally, and attributes to her a novel she did not write, which gets its title from a line from Keats `Ode to Melancholy' - neither twist Wolfsbane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine.
The particular skill that I appreciate in Keating's novels is what I call his pacing. He allows plenty of time for "warming up" before slipping into top speed. Being a detective fiction reader who tends to forget what I read in the last chapter, I find Keating's books to be more "reader-friendly" than most.

I don't know, I just found this book to be incredibly dull, and the ending weak. Maybe the writer was trying to create an Agatha Christie feel but, at least in my view, he failed miserably. One good thing was that I checked the book out of the library, so I did not waste anything other than time.

Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens of Greater Birchester Police is lounging near a pool on a hot August afternoon, sipping a Campari soda, when she suddenly experiences strange and violent symptoms. Harriet is fortunate; the quick action of her husband, John, and the skills of an expert doctor bring her through what could easily have been a fatal attack. It seems that an unknown assailant slipped a poison called aconitine into Harriet's drink. In H. R. F. Keating's new mystery, "A Detective at Death's Door," other poisoning victims follow, and they are not as lucky as Harriet.

Harriet's recuperation is slow. She is ordered to stay at home for three months, lest she suffer a relapse. However, she cannot lie still while a killer is still at large. She is determined to assist DS Pat Murphy, the Senior Investigating Officer on the case, even if it means dragging herself out of her sickbed. And that is exactly what Harriet does, much to the consternation of her worried husband.

"A Detective at Death's Door" is a breezy and very funny mystery featuring a detective who is irrepressible, curious, and impulsive. Harriet Martens is a determined woman with a vivid imagination. She doesn't suffer fools gladly, but she is willing to make a fool out of herself if it means finding the murderer who tried to kill her. Keating's dialogue is droll, and this book features a whole array of delightfully eccentric British characters. I enjoyed Miss Earwaker, a former teacher and plant expert nearing eighty who takes Harriet on an expedition to find the source of monkshood, the plant from which aconitine is derived. Another memorable character is Harriet's next-door neighbor, Mrs. Pickstock, an extremely solicitous individual who tries to keep Harriet in bed and offers Harriet tasteless organic concoctions to speed her recovery.

Keating keeps the proceedings moving along briskly, and although the story's resolution is not entirely logical, that is almost beside the point. Fans of British police procedurals will be diverted by this entertaining and lighthearted mystery.

Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens was sunbathing sipping a drink while her husband John Piddock was relaxing nearby when she suddenly turned icy cold and her tongue tingled before she collapsed. John, an avid Christie fan, recognized the symptoms as aconite poisoning, having just read that scenario in an Agatha tale. He reacts quickly and when Harriet next awakens she is in a hospital room, the first victim of the Birchester Poisoner. Others did not have a Christie expert nearby and died.

Harriet is on sick leave recovering from her ordeal, but still tries to help Detective Superintendent Pat Murphy solve the case before more die. When the Birchester Poisoner expands his or her area of operation to London, the National Crime Squad (NCS) takes charge of the case. Though no longer welcomed, Harriet develops a profile from what knows and a letter the Birchester Poisoner sent to the media demanding one million pounds. While the NCS ignores her, Harriet, over the objections of a concerned John, conducts her own investigation.

A DETECTIVE AT DEATH'S DOOR is a solid entry in the Martens British police procedural series but the focus is more on the health problems and related doubts of ever being the HARD DETECTIVE again rather than the investigation. The audience feels for the slowly recovering Harriet who must "flow" every step in normally taken for granted simple tasks that takes time away from the NCS official inquiries and the ailing sleuth's solo investigation. This also leads to questioning how Harriet could do any complex police work like profiling. Her disabling health problems make her more human, but less likely to solve the case so that readers wonder who will.

Harriet Klausner