So Pretty A Problem - Softcover

Duncan, Francis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784704822 ISBN 13: 9781784704827

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2017

Synopsis

Amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine is back in another classic mystery from the author of Murder for Christmas

Adrian Carthallow, enfant terrible of the art world, is no stranger to controversy. But this time it’s not his paintings that have provoked a blaze of publicity – it’s the fact that his career has been suddenly terminated by a bullet to the head. Not only that, but his wife has confessed to firing the fatal shot.

Inspector Penross of the town constabulary is, however, less than convinced by Helen Carthallow’s story – but has no other explanation for the incident that occurred when the couple were alone in their clifftop house.

Luckily for the Inspector, amateur criminologist Mordecai Tremaine has an uncanny habit of being in the near neighbourhood whenever sudden death makes its appearance. Investigating the killing, Tremaine is quick to realise that however handsome a couple the Carthallows were, and however extravagant a life they led, beneath the surface there’s a pretty devil’s brew...

About this title

About the Author

Francis Duncan is the pseudonym for William Underhill, who was born in 1918. He lived virtually all his life in Bristol and was a ‘scholarship boy’ boarder at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital school. Due to family circumstances he was unable to go to university and started work in the Housing Department of Bristol City Council. Writing was always important to him and very early on he published articles in newspapers and magazines. His first detective story was published in 1936.

In 1938 he married Sylvia Henly. Although a conscientious objector, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War II, landing in France shortly after D-Day. After the war he trained as a teacher and spent the rest of his life in education, first as a primary school teacher and then as a lecturer in a college of further education. In the 1950s he studied for an external economics degree from London University. No mean feat with a family to support; his daughter, Kathryn, was born in 1943 and his son, Derek, in 1949.

Throughout much of this time he continued to write detective fiction from ‘sheer inner necessity’, but also to supplement a modest income. He enjoyed foreign travel, particularly to France, and took up golf on retirement. He died of a heart shortly after celebrating his fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1988.

Review

" A tale typical of the genre's golden age, full of delightfully devious characters and clever plot devices.
" - Kirkus

"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." - Booklist

"Fans of twisty fair-play whodunits will be gratified. " - Publishers Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1784704822
• ISBN 13: 9781784704827
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272