Product Description

It is London in 1946. An actress is murdered, not just on camera but in full view of a crowded film set. Only six people had an opportunity to administer the poison yet not one of them had a conceivable motive. As Evadne Mount, bestselling crime novelist, discovers, however, all six did have a motive for committing another, earlier, still unsolved murder yet, on that occasion, not one of them had the opportunity...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330007 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 292 pages

About the Author
Gilbert Adair has published novels, essays, translations, children's books and poetry. He is the acclaimed author of The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice. He has also written screenplays, including The Dreamers - from his own novel - for Bernardo Bertolucci.

Customer Reviews

Evadne Mount rides again - and this time it's personal!!
This is the second book in what will be the 'Evadne Mount' trilogy. I had read and enjoyed the first book, 'The Act of Roger Mugatroyd', but you don't necessarily have to read it to appreciate this book.

Evadne Mount is a fabulous character; a mystery / crime writer, who wears a tricorn hat, has a booming voice and an impressively direct manner. She runs into Chief-Inspector Trubshawe and the unlikely pair team up once again.

This time the focus of their investigations is the murder of Cora Rutherford, an actress who is slightly past her prime, who is also a friend of Evadnes's. The murder follows the suspicious death of the director, and takes place on a crowded film set, so it will need all of the couple's investigative powers to find out who's responsible.

This was a great book, as was its predecessor; full of humour, word play fun and great characters. Although this is a pastiche, it is also a homage to the great golden-age mysteries.

Cosy winter reading, tuck yourself up and enjoy!

Enjoyable old-fashioned mystery novel with lots to offer Alfred Hitchcock film buffs
I really liked the first book so I was keen to read the follow up. This time, instead of Cluedo, it's inspired by Alfred Hitchcock films - in everything from the style of the book to a character based completely on Hitchcock (there is also a character based on the French director Francois Truffaut, who is writing an interview book awfully similar to the one Truffaut wrote about Hitchcock).

It's slightly post-modern as it references the mystery novel and, to a lesser extent, Hitchcock thriller genre conventions; but there's nothing too arty about it. Interestingly the two books both have titles that riff slightly on Agatha Christie book titles.

It's full of cliches but that's the point. The author seems to have proper literary credentials, and has crafted this book for his own pleasure. See also Going To The Dogs by Dan Kavanaugh (real name Julian Barnes) for a similar lightweight mystery by an acclaimed literary author.

It's as good as the first book. If it appeals to you then I would recommend it.

*MINOR SPOILER*
The murder doesn't take place until halfway into the book so it does play with some conventions of the genre. Those first 100 or so pages are enjoyable enough, and anyway two deaths have taken place under mysterious circumstances so there's is already a mystery in place from the start.

Tongue in cheek, enjoyable romp
Having read "The Act of Roger Mugatroyd", the first in this proposed trilogy, I knew roughly what the style of the book would be: an entertaining take-off of the Agatha Christie style of detective fiction, but none the worse for that. The author doesn't satirize Christie: it's more a homage with knobs on. A tweedy lady of mature years (Evadne Mount) runs rings around the professional police force in solving crimes. The solution in this book is ingenious. It's a light-hearted, enjoyable book, not a bit like the gritty reality of real detective work as depicted by the likes of Peter Robinson or Ian Rankin.