Items related to This Club Frowns on Murder
Synopsis
"Dear Mrs. Richardson, I must let you know how I, and all the members of the Alumni Club, sympathize with you in John's untimely death." In a time of sorrow such a note would be a welcome expression of condolence, but since John Richardson is very much alive when the note arrives, it's a bit disconcerting to his wife. Soon several members of the posh, exclusive, old world New York Alumni Club storm through its venerable portals waving similar notes. It appears that some disgruntled club member with a very macabre sense of humour is engaging in a little vicious fun. The humour quickly evaporates, however, when one of the club's members "accidentally" falls from a balcony. This prankster is in deadly earnest. When true-crime historian Paul Prye and his wife Alice come to stay at the Club, their expert help is enlisted and they begin to make discreet inquiries about the poison-pen condolence letters. Paul soon discovers that beneath the placid, cultured surface of the Alumni Club whirls a maelstrom; old grudges, embarrassing secrets, and some implacable hatreds add up to something most definitely not in the membership rules -- murder. --Book 2 of the The Paul and Alice Prye Mysteries
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From Publishers Weekly
A promising idea is buried under heavy-handed writing, excessive jocularity and too little action. When urban history professor Paul Prye and his wife, Alice, are asked by an acquaintance, Rodney Baker, to stay at the prestigious Alumni Club while their house is being repaired, they suspect that the invitation has something to do with Paul's passionate interest in true crime. They're right: Baker asks Prye to investigate discreetly the pranks and the malicious letters from "a Friend of the Alumni Club" which some important members have received. Nothing much happens (all the developments are reported second- and third-hand) while the Pryes banter facetiously with each other, and socialize with and question members. Despite the Pryes' amateurish efforts, the mean-spirited practical jokes continue and a recipient of a poison-pen letter is murdered while attending an Alumni Club costume party. Borowitz's ( The Jack the Ripper Walking Tour Murders ) grating witticisms and his frequent lectures on obscure crime facts make this mystery slow going.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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