A sick man, suffering from leukemia, enters the hospital and - to nobody's surprise - dies of his disease. But before he died, this man had made a few marginal notes in an old and not particularly valuable copy of Shakespeare's play, "The Tempest." And suddenly anyone who might have seen those notes is very much at risk of being murdered.
That's the central situation in Elizabeth Daly's 1944 mystery, The Book of the Dead, our featured review today on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the entire review here.
Daly, who is said to have been among Agatha Christie's favorite authors, is an ingenious plotter. But her strength also lies in her characters and her settings. Her detective, biblio expert Henry Gamadge, is a complex and engaging character. The other people we meet in the book are fully drawn. The victims in Daly's books are rarely cardboard cutouts - nor are the villains. And the ending, with its sudden twists and turns, will surprise most readers. The Felony & Mayhem Press has been republishing Daly; "The Book of the Dead" is the eighth of her books to be back in print, and it's an excellent entry in the series.
I admit it -- I'd never heard of her. But I'm interested and will look for one of her books. Thanks!
Posted by: Karen Russell | June 14, 2010 at 08:02 PM