So Pretty a Problem

March 19, 2018
Why might a woman falsely confess to shooting her husband? That’s the conundrum that Duncan’s affable amateur sleuth, Mordecai Tremaine, must crack in this welcome reissue, first published in the U.K. in 1947. Mordecai, a retired tobacconist with a gift for detection, is dozing on a Cornish beach when he’s roused by Helen Carthallow, who lives in an isolated house nearby. She says she needs his help because she just accidentally killed her artist husband, Adrian. She pointed a gun at Adrian that she thought was unloaded, and it went off. Mordecai returns with her to the cliff-top house, which is accessible only via a narrow bridge, to find Adrian’s corpse in his study and no evidence that anyone else has been present. Troubled by Helen’s version of events, Mordecai suspects that she was having an affair, and he shares his doubts with the local inspector, who enlists his aid in finding out what really happened. Fans of twisty fair-play whodunits will be gratified.

March 1, 2018
A talented amateur sleuth helps the police solve an unexpectedly complicated case in this reprint from 1947.Mordecai Tremaine, a mild-mannered retired tobacconist with a romantic soul and a knack for criminology (Murder for Christmas, 2017, etc.), is on holiday in Cornwall, where he's staying with his friend Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Jonathan Boyce. While lazing on the beach, he's approached by Helen Carthallow, who claims to have accidentally shot and killed her husband, Adrian, a talented, well-known artist with a fair number of enemies. After inspecting the scene, Tremaine calls Inspector Penross of the local police. Neither can believe Helen's tale, but both are sympathetic toward her, and all three detectives are soon determined to ferret out the truth. Tremaine's romantic bent causes him to have mixed feelings about Helen, whose husband hasn't always treated her well, but he disapproves of her having a lover, handsome Lester Imleyson. The Carthallows' home sits on an island with steep cliffs approachable only by a footbridge that was constantly under the scrutiny of a bedridden woman living nearby. Because Tremaine has spent some time interacting with the Carthallows' social circle, he's well-aware of Adrian's spiteful reputation and the enemies it's made him. Although it seems that very few people could have had the opportunity to murder Carthallow, Tremaine, slowly recalling the seemingly unimportant things that he learned in the weeks he's spent among this circle, comes up with an ingenuous method for murder--if he can only prove it.The pseudonymous Duncan (William Underhill, 1918-1988), who started publishing detective fiction in the late 1930s, spins a tale typical of the genre's golden age, full of delightfully devious characters and clever plot devices.

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April 1, 2018
Elderly amateur criminologist Mordecai Tremaine is vacationing in Cornwall with his friend, Scotland Yard detective Jonathan Boyce, when Helen Carthallow shoots her husband, noted artist Adrian Carthallow. When local inspector Charles Penross tells Helen that her story doesn't match the evidence at the scene, she changes it but insists she shot her husband accidentally, despite the fact that a witness states no one crossed the bridge to the house but the mailman and the two Carthallows. Tremaine and Penross would like to clear the beautiful Helen, but who else could have killed him? At Penross' request, Tremaine questions friends and neighbors of the two, bringing all the possible subjects, including Adrian's lover, together for a final unmasking that suggests Agatha Christie and Rex Stout. This leisurely placed cozy, firmly set in beautiful Cornwall, with its quirky, well-drawn protagonist, was originally published in 1947 in the UK.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)