There are however some weaknesses to this novel. Perhaps not surprisingly given Tremaine’s interest in human relationships, it’s the relationships between the characters that are the key to the mystery and those relationships are complex and are handled reasonably well. He’s a nice old fellow who likes nothing better than to see young people find true love. He’s a man of somewhat advanced years and apart from criminology he has another unusual hobby - he is passionately fond of romance stories. Mordecai Tremaine is a likeable detective. The setting is good although I couldn’t help thinking that the author didn’t really take full advantage of it. It builds to a violent climax with unexpected results. There are plenty of other suspects and it’s fairly clear that none of them are being particularly truthful.
There’s an obvious suspect, but maybe just a bit too obvious. The Chief Officer of the island (more or less equivalent to a Chief Constable) is happy to have the assistance of the famous Mordecai Tremaine. The murderer could have been one of the half a dozen people staying at the Rohane Hotel, or one of several others associated with those people. Odd quirks of behaviour on the part of a number of people, and the relationships between various people also seem slightly wrong.įinally murder is committed.
For quite a while nothing much happens, except that there are a few small things that make Mordecai Tremaine slightly uneasy. Amateur detective Mordecai Tremaine is staying with some friends on one of the islands and he’s hoping that his restful holiday is not going to be interrupted by any murders (like most amateur detectives he finds that murder has a way of following him around). The last of them was Behold a Fair Woman.īehold a Fair Woman takes place in the Channel Islands.
These five books have been reissued in handsome paperback editions by Vintage Books. William Underhill (1918-1988) was an Englishman who wrote quite a bit of detective fiction, including the five Mordecai Tremaine mysteries published between 19 under the pseudonym Francis Duncan.
0 kommentar(er)
