The Second Shot (A Roger Sheringham case) [Paperback]

Anthony Berkeley (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Roger Sheringham case | Publication Date: January 2001

A ROGER SHERINGHAM MYSTERY. Detective writer John Hillyard is entertaining a small house party at Minton Deeps Farm when a shocking accident takes place. Shortly after enacting a murder drama for their own amusement, the guests are returning to the house when Eric Scott Davies, the man who played victim, is found dead after two gunshots go off. The police suspect murder, but when Roger Sheringham is summoned from London it is not by Superintendent Hancock but by one of the guests. In a web of scandal, opportunity and multiple motives, the case turns out to be more complex than even Sheringham could have expected.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘Anthony Berkeley is the supreme master not of the "twist" but of the "double-twist".’ - The Sunday Times

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Born in 1893, Anthony Berkeley (Anthony Berkeley Cox) was a British crime writer and a leading member of the genre's Golden Age. Educated at Sherborne School and University College London, Berkeley served in the British army during WWI before becoming a journalist. His first novel, The Layton Court Murders, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case. In 1930, Berkeley founded the legendary Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and other established mystery writers. It was in 1938, under the pseudonym Francis Iles (which Berkeley also used for novels) that he took up work as a book reviewer for John O'London's Weekly and The Daily Telegraph. He later wrote for The Sunday Times in the mid 1940s, and then for The Guardian from the mid 1950s until 1970. A key figure in the development of crime fiction, he died in 1971. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus Ltd (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075510207X
• ISBN-13: 978-0755102075
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,483,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death of a Bounder, January 14, 2012

By 

Mr. R. J. Clark "richardjclark" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Second Shot (Paperback)

Cyril Pinkerton, a stick in the mud virgin at 36, has been invited to the Hillyards' house to act as a distraction for poor little rich girl Elsa Verity, who is the subject of the attentions of Eric Scott-Davies. Scott-Davies is fortune hunting, and a notorious womaniser. Ethel Hillyard has also invited Eric's last lover Mrs de Ravel(plus husband) to make up the party, in the hope that she will snap at the sight of Eric's attentions to Elsa, putting an end to it.

In fact the plan goes awry. Pinkie is seen as a serious contender for Elsa by nobody, and Elsa and Scott-Davies announce their engagement on the morning that the houseguests are due to play a murder game, with Scott-Davies as the victim, Pinkie as the killer, and motives for the other guests that are uncomfortably close to home. After the play-acting of the game, Pinkie returns to the woods to investigate shots coming from there, and discovers Eric dead, in the same circumstances as those of the murder game - and naturally the police decide that Pinkie is probably the culprit!

Written in the form of Pinkie's manuscript diary, we laugh at his attempts to act as gallant lover to Miss Verity (who plainly is not in the least interested), and then suffer with him as the police make it pretty clear that he is the principal suspect. The other guests all think he did it too, and poor Pinkie has to suffer everyone thanking him for doing the deed! Finally, he calls in Roger Sheringham the great detective to help him out of this pickle. As ever, Sheringham breezes in, demonstrating brilliance and fallibility in equal measure, to solve the case.

Thank heaven for the Langtail Press reviving the Anthony Berkeley novels. They are pacy and amusing, and the solutions brilliant.