Eric Wright Smoke Detector (1984) #2 in the Charlie Salter saga. An antique dealer dies because of arson. Charlie gets the job because homicide is busy on other things. The murder turns out to be accidental, but the second one is not. Their roots lie in the past, when a man took on safe-keeping of a box containing Japanese prints. He kept this commitment until his son-in-law stole the box and sold it to the antique dealer, whereupon a chain of the usual coincidences and misunderstandings and withholding of information precipitate another murder and finally the solution to the case. Trouble is, the suspect Charlie dislikes is innocent, and the one he likes is the murderer. Charlie’s family figures prominently in this novel, and again it seems like Wright is working out his own family problems through his fiction. Or reporting on them; it’s not clear. **½ (2005)
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Eric Wright Smoke Detector (1984)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mice in the Beer (Ward, 1960)
Norman Ward. Mice In the Beer (1960. Reprinted 1986) Ward, like Stephen Leacock, was an economics and political science professor, Leacock...
-
John Cunningham. The Tin Star (Collier’s, December 4, 1947) The short story adapted for High Noon . As often happens, the movie retains v...
-
Noel Coward The Complete Short Stories (1985) Coward was a very clever writer. All of these stories are worth reading, but few stick ...
-
Patrick Hamilton. The Charmer (1953) Originally titled Mr Simpson and Mr Gorse , retitled and reprinted in 1989 to take advantage of t...
No comments:
Post a Comment