Books › Duplicate Death
Duplicate Death
357 pages
A sparkling dialogue-driven puzzle where polite society masks deadly intentions over a game of cards.
What it feels like
Reading this classic mystery feels like stepping into a mid-century London drawing room where the tea is hot, the bridge game is tense, and the guests are all hiding something. The pace is steady and methodical, driven less by action than by sparkling, razor-sharp dialogue and the slow unraveling of social facades. The mood is distinctly urbane and cozy, yet laced with the claustrophobic tension of a closed-circle whodunit. The prose is elegant and wry, capturing the absurdities of social climbers and the quiet desperation of the upper-middle class with a satirical edge. It is a delight for fans of Golden Age detective fiction who prefer their murders solved through keen psychological observation, witty banter, and a perfectly constructed intellectual puzzle.
- Mood
- urbane
- cozy
- suspenseful
- claustrophobic
- Tone
- wry
- observant
- witty
- civilized
- satirical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- facade of respectability · social climbing · hidden pasts · class anxiety · deception
- The writing
- Elegant and dialogue-heavy marked by sharp wit and a keen eye for social absurdities.
- The arc
- Moves from the tense polite friction of a high-society gathering to the satisfying intellectual clarity of a solved puzzle.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love Golden Age mysteries where the murder is a puzzle to be solved through sparkling conversation and keen observation.
Content notes
- murder
- strangulation
About the book
Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway #8
London is the scene for a card party given by a social-climbing hostess. Suddenly, the seemingly civilized game of Duplicate Bridge is interrupted by a double murder, both victims murdered by the same sinister method, strangled with picture wire. The crimes seem identical, but were they carried out by the same hand? And, what was the connection between the first, a mysterious man of the world, and the second, an ambitious widow? Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him, and the odds of solving this crime are stacked up against him.
Things become even more complicated when Miss Beulah Birtley, the fiancée of the inspector's young friend Timothy Kane, becomes Hemingway's prime suspect. Kane is determined to prove the lady's innocence--but when he begins digging into her past, he finds it's more than a little bit shady... That morning, Miss Beulah bought the weapon. Before supper, she had spit out her hatred for the victim in poisonous--and public--words. And at the party, she was the last to see him alive. They found him slumped in a chair-his handsome head lolling forward on his well-cut dinner jacket--his florid face hideously distorted. A horrible death, observed the Inspector. But very simple for a young lady like Beulah to arrange... Mrs. Haddington, the second victim, is found strangled in the exact same spot where one of her daughter's many suitors had also been strangled. Fortunately, the first-rate detective doesn’t miss a trick.
Description from Open Library.
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